I don't really know how else to ask this.

But I feel like it's a question I've been wondering because I know I'm not the only person who's changed a lot since we were last active on Menewsha or Pantheon or Voltra or any other avatar forum. :o

So... How have you changed since first joining avatar sites? Like, has your personality changed? Your job? Have you grown as a person? Or are you still a kid at heart?



I have changed a lot, I feel since I joined avatar sites. I used to be very excitable and immature. I feel like life over the pandemic has just changed so much for me that I'm not really that fun-loving and crazy, wild person I used to be. I'm actually quite boring. It's not even the pandemic that changed things for me, it's just that my life went in so many wild directions in 2021-2022. That year was just crazy for me... so much shit happened and it's forever changed how I see the world and changed... me as a person, I guess?

tbh I've been wondering the same about the familiar faces that I've seen coming back.

This account is sixteen years old lol.

I learned to ride and bought a motorcycle. :'^)

I had to stop for a second: didn't we recently have this conversation before? Well, no! What I've been up to and how I've changed since those years is a varied subject. We can still do the same things but do them differently, or we do different stuff because we've changed!

I was 17 when I first started here; now I'm 30. Even before this site, I was on Gaia, and I loved my cliques of people and only talked to them - if someone, here or there, was offended I was quick to jump on the 'don't mess with him/her!' wagon. I feel like I've changed that way of thinking dramatically. Once I realized that defending a person who was wrong because they were 'my family' isn't the right way to do things, I now try to rationalize, get both sides of the story before making any judgement, whether online or in real life. I've cut out, or at least stopped enabling/supporting people who have taken advantage of me in the past.

I kind of already said that in the other thread, though I wasn't a fully independent woman before; now I feel confident in who I am and what I've chosen to do in life. I didn't want help before - whether it be financially, emotionally, etc - now I know it's okay to ask for help, especially when it comes to the mind. It's great to have found a best friend who I can text and say: hey, I'm feeling sad right now, can you talk to me?

I feel like I've grown as a writer, as well. I enjoy roleplaying but when writing my actual novels, I've learned to keep the dialogue and writing style separate entities. I'm not published or anything but I've written quite a bit, privately!

The pandemic didn't do much for me, honestly, as I'm an essential worker and I still saw the same people I saw every day anyway. Sure, restaurants and bars were closed for a time, but I don't frequent them so my coworkers and I grew pretty close during that time. No 'work-at-home' in my line of work.

I moved several times. Changed jobs several times. I have a house now. And a dog, the cat is still around.
I fell really hard into the My Hero fandom, although like usual I pick the weirdest character to obsess over. I have my original characters and been writing and drawing.
Mostly I've been busy. Had ups and downs, a lot more downs than ups. But I come out on the other side every time.

I think I'm a lot more cynical and a little more uncharitable in my thoughts than I used to be. I'm trying not to be, but seeing how terrible people can be, and how many terrible people there are all the time kinda made me a little bitter I guess. Doesn't help that the world seems to be going to pieces these days.

On the upside, I'm no longer completely apathetic about whether I'm alive or not anymore because somewhere along the way I took meds for untreated depression and I'm still amazed I actually think of dying as scary now. Sometimes I miss not caring, considering current world events.

Am still generally a useless person in terms of career and life skills though lol.

I have had so many life experiences and still think I'm a genuinely useless person. have all these weird skills that don't translate into marketable job skills and I feel like I stagnate career wise. Sad that my thoughts are on "how can I turn my skills into a job"

I feel like this person.



I know some things, but they're completely useless in an actual job setting.

I have things like "proficient with 25' vessels" "understands proper flag ceremony" "basic ada compliance for Adobe documents" "taught watercolor class"... My resume is a disaster.

Meanwhile most of mine are random bits and pieces of knowledge that I collected over the years but can't remember when I actually need them, but seem to pop up randomly when I don't actually need it.

My memory's a mess.

Originally Posted by ~LONGCAT~

I have things like "proficient with 25' vessels" "understands proper flag ceremony" "basic ada compliance for Adobe documents" "taught watercolor class"... My resume is a disaster.

Alternatively, your resume is very well-rounded! :')

Dystopia, I have had opportunity to do a lot of things and take a lot of trainings. It's a jack of trades situation. I'm not particularly good at any one thing.

I used to be rather excitable, and free spirited. But a battle with cancer and a world falling apart at the seems, and an absolutely terrible work experience, I think has turned me into ......not exactly a bitter person. I don't think I'm bitter at all, still friendly and genuine at least people tell me so. I'm just more jaded I think. I don't trust people as readily as I used to. I've come toe to toe with the monsters masquerading as humans and it kinda makes you less willing to trust them. Other then that I think I have changed in good ways too, I'm less dramatic, and I don't take things for granted anymore.

Hmm well, I am older now but still young at heart! And I make money now instead of spending it on tuition! That is a huge difference haha.

Originally Posted by Cora

I used to be rather excitable, and free spirited. But a battle with cancer and a world falling apart at the seems, and an absolutely terrible work experience, I think has turned me into ......not exactly a bitter person. I don't think I'm bitter at all, still friendly and genuine at least people tell me so. I'm just more jaded I think. I don't trust people as readily as I used to. I've come toe to toe with the monsters masquerading as humans and it kinda makes you less willing to trust them. Other then that I think I have changed in good ways too, I'm less dramatic, and I don't take things for granted anymore.

Trauma is a bitch. I'm very sorry life gave you that mess but very glad you came through it.

Originally Posted by ~LONGCAT~

Trauma is a bitch. I'm very sorry life gave you that mess but very glad you came through it.

Thanks LONG

Originally Posted by Cora

I used to be rather excitable, and free spirited. But a battle with cancer and a world falling apart at the seems, and an absolutely terrible work experience, I think has turned me into ......not exactly a bitter person. I don't think I'm bitter at all, still friendly and genuine at least people tell me so. I'm just more jaded I think. I don't trust people as readily as I used to. I've come toe to toe with the monsters masquerading as humans and it kinda makes you less willing to trust them. Other then that I think I have changed in good ways too, I'm less dramatic, and I don't take things for granted anymore.

Originally Posted by ~LONGCAT~

Trauma is a bitch. I'm very sorry life gave you that mess but very glad you came through it.

Originally Posted by Cora

Thanks LONG

Just read your post and wanted to extend my well wishes Cora <3

I personally hate cancer with a passion. I've seen a lot of cancer in my family and in my work

Originally Posted by salvete

Just read your post and wanted to extend my well wishes Cora <3

I personally hate cancer with a passion. I've seen a lot of cancer in my family and in my work

Cancer is......a lot. As someone who has now had Cancer, they don't tell you that it never really leaves you. Every time you get sick, or you feel something wrong with you you immediately wonder "could it be back, are we headed that way again" I also had to deal with the worse of it in 2020, so I wasn't allowed to have support with me during treatments or anything else. It left scars. The kind people can't really see. But it also leaves you with good things too on the other side. You start to appreciate little things. Like simple acts of kindness, something as simple as someone holding a door open, or saying something kind, leaves a much bigger impact on you. You feel them, because you stop to notice them.

The last time I was on Mene was over 10 years ago based off of my last unread notifications haha. I had been on Voltra quite a bit a little more recently (prior to checking back in earlier this yr) was probably only like 7-9 years ago. Ofc there was also a slew of others that I preferred over Mene. (Think it was just purely aesthetics.) It being over a decade, and my bio saying I was 15... Woof. Yeah, I'm a very different person. I was probably last active here just before I dropped out of HS due to becoming homeless. Wild.

I now have a job, a home, stable happy married life with a cat and shit. It's nice. It's also nice to see a few threads from this yr on here! Also wild seeing that there's 2k guests online... What are they doing? Reading all the archived RPs? I'm so curriouuss.

Originally Posted by Ana_M

I now have a job, a home, stable happy married life with a cat and shit. It's nice. It's also nice to see a few threads from this yr on here! Also wild seeing that there's 2k guests online... What are they doing? Reading all the archived RPs? I'm so curriouuss.

A lot of them are bots

I've popped in every now and then between when I was last super active and now, but since my last big bout of activity here, I've moved a few times, lost a pet, gained a good bit of independence, and become more physically active. So overall pretty good! It could definitely be worse so I'm quite content for the most part. :)

Its an Iku!

Glad to hear life has been mostly treating you well! Sorry for the loss of your pet though!

Hey Cora!
Yesss, I'm very fortunate! And yeah, it definitely sucked losing a pet, especially as an adult where you're making the decision to put them to sleep so they're not suffering. But I know it was for the best. I still have one pet and I'm actually thinking of getting some beetles lol.

I have owned many animals in my life (you name it, and its not illegal or wicked exotic and I've probably owned one at some point or another) and its never easier, I've had to make that choice twice, I cried like a baby both times. Beetles is an interesting choice of pet! I actually have never had a beetle, but they do have such a unique beauty to them if you are willing to look past the fact that they are bugs (which is what would cause most people to shy away)!

Yeah, I had never really considered beetles before, but I mentioned to a friend that I wanted a low maintenance pet (lower maintenance than a cat basically) and was thinking about getting a hamster and she mentioned that she had beetles and how low-key they are! In particular, blue death feigning beetles. They eat basically anything and just stay in their habitat with sand. I need to do more research and start buying parts of the habitat that I'll need, but I think they'll be neat to have!

I'm guessing they feign their own death as a survival technique. I sat here for a good 2 minutes wondering about a pet with death in the name but then saw that it was death feigning , I'll have to look them up, I've never actually heard of those! I'm not allowed to have pets in my apartment complex, but I'm trying to talk my landlord into letting me get a bird.