Being 16 nostalgia and delicious ihop

Good... night, everyone. It's late, for me especially, to be talking to you on a weeknight. 

To be honest I used to be a night owl. I used to get such exhilaration logging into Neopets and Gaiaonline late into the night and making internet world advancements that didn't relate to my real life goings on. Thank God for Gaia, haha. I no longer play that site what-so-ever. It's a forum site that you post and earn virtual "Gold" that you can buy stuff with to put on your avatar. Sound lame? 

There was actually a lot more to it. Man, seeing this screenshot really takes me back. Most of the time spent on Gaia is utilized in the forums. Whether your spamming, answering surveys to earn gold, doing polls, roleplaying, whatever. I really enjoyed that website.

Okay, fun side memory for you guys. I've decided that I need to start writing my old memories from time to time because you never know when you might forget these. As I can feel my brain hardening to so much nonsensical business knowledge I feel myself forgetting the small details of the past that I used to be able to so readily recall. When I write old memories I will try to bold them so that those of you that are reading don't feel like reading this, well, then you can skip it. 

Who the hell would want to read these, I have no idea. But those of you out there-- hi!!

Anyway.

This story is called: How I found Gaia Online

I was in middle school. Katelynn and I were hanging out together on an every other weekend basis when we were in 7th grade. She had a confusing life with divorced parents and I only got the opportunity to hang out with her every other weekend when she was with her Mom. She of course spent her schooldays with her Mom and her Dad spent time with her every other weekend. Her Dad was dating a chick named Kelly who had two daughter's over a span of about three years with Kelly. 

Katelynn wouldn't get to talk to me much when she was at her Dad's house, because when she was there was either going out to eat with her Dad or watching over the havoc of Kelly's house. I remember going there once. It was a light blue house that was sort of messy because it was a very busy house. Katelynn's two step brothers Keiton and Cody and her stepsister Casey all lived with Katelynn's Dad and there Mom Kelly during the week and would sometimes be with their Dad.

Anyway, for the most part when I'd hang out with Katelynn it was either at her house or my house every other weekend. It was always a huge treat for me to see her because middle school was quite sucky. I felt really insecure about myself for the most part, but I suppose we all do in middle school. It wasn't until 8th grade that I started to pull out of that insecurity when I was taking Paxil. 

At some point in the 8th grade, Katelynn and I got in a fight and did not talk for awhile. This was the summer before going into highschool that I was spending almost all of my time with Katharine, RJ, Toren, Damien, Bean... whoever else was hanging out at the skatepark. We thought we were quite legit at the time. We'd go on bus rides over to Richland to watch them skateboard around in circles.

The internet is great. Scrolling through my old photobucket albums I see so much personal growth and maturity in myself. All these things that I created for my online movies with random pictures I didn't own from google image search. I guess that hasn't changed much.

Wow, I think of how insecure I was when that picture was taken. I was probably about 16. Okay, I know the duck face is inexcusable but I look cute. I can't believe I sincerely thought I wasn't good enough for these turds at my school that didn't typically approach me. Probably because I was a little intimidating. Or because I acted rather bizarrely. That's my thing, I was always a little bizarre  behaving because of my interest in drawing anime and online roleplay, neopets and pokemon. 

Anyway Katelynn introduced me to Gaiaonline and I had a blast doing all the events and earning all the gold I could for different items. It was a time consuming project. I don't even want you guys to read the captions for the above screenshot. I'm quite clearly trying to somehow cover up for the fact that I'm really taking Gaia "prom crashers" screenshots for people and giving them away as photos. I was drawing attention to myself in the event like "photo booth" photo booth!" Lol then in all the pictures I sent back to them my avatar was in the picture. 

I was so incredibly self absorbed. Here let me take your avatar's picture! 

I send it to them and is has a picture of the back of my avatar in the picture, hahahaha.I have no idea why I find this so funny. Maybe because I know that in MY mind I really thought "that person will LOVE it, what a chance to be in a photo with my awesome camera man avatar." Lol also lovely kiss in the corner. 

2008... Damn lets see that was, five years ago. I was 16. Yeah that would make sense. This was really at the height of my gaia posting/hoarding avatar item days. I even bought a couple monthly collectables. Again it was just a nice escape from the real world. 

So there's a little about that. The story of how I found Gaia online. I hope recording these memories can someday give me feels. 

peace.