Year Six.

On February 8th, 2012, when I was eleven years old, my friend asked me if I wanted to play Minecraft with him after we'd both played it for two years prior to knowing one another. Of course, I said yes. I logged onto smp3 with him that night, very nearly logging out after waiting for twenty minutes for him to arrive back to town. I'm glad I didn't: that would have been... quite a grievous mistake.

The following months were relatively quiet. I played in the wild, started outposts, and eventually my friends drifted away from EMC and I stayed. To remedy this lack of people to play with on a multiplayer server and get more involved with the community, I began posting in the forum during the early summer of 2012. I joined the Last Light Outpost the same day they experienced their worst griefing ever (a very large portion of its central area had been razed to the ground that night), and by September I began a very long period of being on the highest-posting members list. I also had a small project with JackBiggin and mba2012, back when the EMC Wiki wasn't an integrated or official entity, that never really took off, but I remember it quite distinctly and it was fun to throw around ideas and actually work on something with other people.

2013 was... a strange year. This website became my outlet while I grappled with some regular teenage angst, girl stuff (about a girl who was emotionally manipulative), and a whole host of odd mental health problems. I was temporarily banned once for creating drama with posts and eventually swearing at someone who was just pointing out I always made posts asking for help yet immediately shot everyone down, and I was permanently banned later in the year for insulting staff members. I appealed and was unbanned at the end of the summer, and I'd like to thank the staff members who fought for me to be allowed back here and those who voted to allow me back.

Unfortunately, I didn't learn, because I joined a group of other players who sought to voice problems with the staff. This in itself wasn't inherently bad, but I blew it way out of proportion, attempting to turn the group into a 'demote this administrator!' group after my complaints were quite politely put to rest. I was banned. Then, a month later, what do you know - the admin was demoted and I was unbanned on the forums. In-game took a while, but it happened around late May-ish. Soon afterwards, I sent in an application to join the Contribution Team and I was accepted. I found out while in the car coming back home from my summer visit to Wales and I remember being... possibly over-excited while stuck in traffic, crossing the border back into England. That's something I don't think I'll ever forget. It's silly, but that was fourteen year old me feeling mature enough to get accepted into what is essentially a kind of, i don't know, spokesperson team? I was trusted to politely and respectfully answer people's questions about the server and help them and create things to help them. On top of that I even got to showcase my writing on the blog, even if I only ever did that twice (through comics I didn't even want to have writing with...).

From there, it's quiet. I don't remember much of 2015. It was a quiet year of just being on the site and playing on the server. Honestly have no clue.

2016 was similar. A really wonderful girl, probably the most beautiful one in every way imaginable whom I've ever met in my seventeen years on the planet, entered my life. I discovered lots of new music and discovered my taste in it. I had this weird depressive slump throughout April and most of May (while I did my exams... not fun). I did my exams and left Secondary School. I had the best summer of my life (and it was even two times as long, since I was a school-leaver). I got my exam results, which were far better than I expected, and signed up for college. I actually started college. Real life was really eating my time on here and actually becoming a thing for me, and I recognised that, so I left the Contribution Team; probably the only significant thing I did here during that year.

2017 was okay. Changed my name to synth_apparition from 'SoulPunisher'. A year on, I'm not sure that I even like that name anymore and I changed it back last month for... no reason. Pretty meh. Oh, and I got banned. That's a giant thorn in the side.

So... 2018. Year six. That's a long time. Six years ago today, my friend asked if I wanted to play with him here and I became a part of this community. I was eleven years old - I'll be eighteen in around three months. That's a strange thing to think about. So - what happens now, especially if I'm banned on my main account? We'll see. I'll probably be gone for some slightly long-ish periods of time, but I don't think I'm really going anywhere. Maybe I'll even have another six years here. Not sure. All I know is that I'm tied here on a bungee cord.

I'd thank people who got me here but I only did that at Christmas. I'm not overkilling the sappiness; it's disgusting. I'd remedy the people I missed but I've had a very long and busy few weeks at college and I don't have the energy for anything other than post. But thank you - to everyone, even if I ever seemed ungrateful for it at times. luv u xx

i love nfell2009 more though, he makes friday nights more fun than EMC ever has, soz xxxxxx

I'll be seeing you around.

I hit 15,000 likes on my main account today too

thx Tom

you're just not looking hard enough

still cant find any mentions of me

Congratulations on six years I'd say. It's great to see you're still posting every now and then, I always love an essay or two

Huh, hadn't expected you to post again, so soon.
It's nice to read another summary of what I already knew, though.