I feel like I should probably post here to get some things off of my chest, if you don't want to read my ramblings, TLDR- these forums have always been like a second home to me, and I love everyone who I have ever interacted with here.
I joined Marriland on May 28, 2013 at the end of my 6th grade year. I was an odd kid with ADHD, over-stimulation issues, and undiagnosed social anxiety. I had a group of close friends, but I always felt that my classmates found me annoying, and I don't blame them. But then I found this place where everyone liked Pokemon and we all shared a common interest. It was a community I needed at the time, so I joined and was welcomed in with open arms. I remember my first thread was asking for someone to trade me a Feebas. Someone replied, and we set up a time to trade. However, I had used my parent's email when I signed up, and my mom got an email with no context about me setting up a time to "meet" with a stranger on the internet to trade. She was concerned, and even though I explained it was not in person, she still didn't want me going on the forums.
Being the disobedient child I was, I defied her and continued posting on the forums. After changing the email, I found a new community in the roleplaying section. There I was able to pretend to be someone else, I could be who I wanted to be in real life. I was never good with social interaction, but I wasn't RPing as myself, I was Fox the Eevee, a confident person with a boyfriend. My first RP I remember was The Pokemon Leagues Nominated, where you RPed as a future gym leader in a region that was just setting up its own Pokemon league. My posts were terrible, dialogue without description was normal for me, but I still had fun.
But the one RP I remember so fondly, that introduced me to so many amazing people was Total Pokemon Island. There was a strong sense of community in those RPs, with characters coming back each season and also adding more characters for them to interact with. My favorite OC of mine is Sparky, the son of my OG TPI character Fox and AquaMaster's character Thunder. Sometimes I get ideas on small stories with him and Luna, his sister. They had a bit of a rivalry and I recently got the idea to write a story about their pointless conflicts.
But things all went downhill when TPI: The Reboot was created. I was slowly drifting away from the forums, and the posts went by too fast for me to catch up with the little time I had. So I left Marriland out of fear that if I ever came back, everyone would be mad at me for ditching them. Of course that wasn't true, but like I said earlier, I hadn't learned how to cope with my social anxiety, so I over thought their reactions.
Every once in a while, I would visit the forums and read my old RPs, but I never posted. One day I went to Azurilland and I learned that the forums had moved. Feeling nostalgic, I came here and signed up for an account. Sadly, I never recognized any people I talked with, so I stopped posting. Then, by some divine intervention, I thought, "Hey, I wonder how Marriland is doing?" Sadly I went to the forums and saw that they were closing. Noticing that the discussion about past RPs had some more posts, I read them thinking that maybe someone had come back. Then I saw Ultimate_Diarno's post on that topic. That he had so much fun with TPI and how it was his favorite RP. I started to tear up. TPI was always special to me, but having someone else say that thing too made me so happy. I quickly wrote up a post through my teary eyes, overwhelmed with happiness. Right after that I had class, but I couldn't focus, I was just so happy.
But every good thing has to come to an end, and it's now Marriland's time. I'll defiantly be active in the Discord more, I can't bear to see this community fade away again. To everyone still here and to everyone who has ever been a member of Marriland/Azurilland, thank you so much for putting up with me for all these years. We're all one big family connected by these forums.
#5016 thought i might as well throw that out there because i live on discord but i'm not in the server, and i would love to reconnect with some of you...!!))
