This is not an "I'm back" post; I'll stick around for a few days but probably won't stay for an extended period of time. It's more of a "just stopping by" post.

First of all, I'm sorry for disappearing shortly after becoming a local mod. I never should have taken the position in the first place. Even if I do have a somewhat sustained period of activity again in the future I ask that I not be considered for any more Staff positions, because I cannot guarantee I won't disappear again. My apologies.

How is everyone doing? It's been just over a year since my last post on here. It appears that the activity has dwindled since its revival in early 2019. Who's still around?

My life has been pretty chaotic over the past year—in a good way and a bad way. Last time I spoke with you all I believe I was still determined to go to law school and become an attorney. I was supposed to graduate this semester. Since then I have changed my mind. I realized that I enjoy my summer job working at a summer camp way more than I enjoy studying law, and I would be so much happier as a teacher than as a lawyer. It was difficult for me, because I believe I could be a great lawyer, but so far I'm happy with my decision. I added a second major in English, which pushed my graduation date back to December, but will allow me to apply to the Master of Arts in Teaching English program at Stony Brook University after I finish my undergrad degree. My preferred job is to teach Middle School English. English because I've come to realize that I love both the creative and the technical aspects of reading and writing (there are few things more magical than a perfectly executed semicolon joining two related independent clauses), and middle school because everything about middle-school-age kids is hilarious. I had the opportunity this past semester to intern as a mentor in a middle school before the program was cut short by COVID-19. It was a cool experience that has made me even more excited to become a teacher.

I mentioned my summer job earlier, and I've made progress there as well. Last summer I was promoted from counselor to travel program specialist, which entailed accompanying the coordinator of the program and between 10 and 25 kids ages 11 to 15 to various locations. Some of the trips were to local places a few minutes away, but others took as long as three hours to get to. I've since been promoted again. I am now the coordinator of the program, which also earned me a spot on the "Leadership Team," responsible for running the camp. I'm happy to have a stronger voice in decision making, but I'm still largely ignored because I'm the youngest (even though I have more camp experience than almost everyone else on the team). It's also a terrible time for me to get involved, since coronavirus-related regulations are going to turn this summer into a dumpster fire.

I am now the Editor-in-Chief of Binghamton Review, a student-run publication at Binghamton University. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's more work for me than all of my classes combined, but I enjoy it. I had a strong team this past year, and we were able to create some pretty great content. I'm also incredibly proud of the way we covered the biggest campus drama of the year (a series of enormous protests). Our extensive footage of the protests were used by local news stations, and a number of national online news outlets credited us for breaking information that was previously unknown.

I also moved recently. My mom got married in September, and just moved in with my step-dad. He lives in a small apartment that's part of the private rich people club he works at. Cons: Building was built in the 1800s, apartment is very small, there will be lots of random rich people here when the coronavirus scare passes. Pros: I have a huge backyard with a lake, and rich people have lots of connections. His apartment is only five minutes away from where I used to live, but it's still an adjustment. It's weird to think that I'll never be able to return to the house that I've called home for as long as I can remember.

I'm still playing poker quite a bit. I'm going to be the Vice President of BU Poker Club next semester, actually. I've also gotten really into collecting Pokemon cards again after going through my collection from when I was a kid. I've spent way too much on cards over the past few months (the most egregious purchase being a trio of PSA 9 Gold Star Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon) but as the price of nearly every card has consistently grown over time, I see the hobby as a pretty safe investment. I'm dying for sports to come back; I miss my Islanders and Yankees.

I've been filling the sports void with a number of things, most recently Avatar: The Last Airbender. I coincidentally started re-watching it on some sketchy website on May 14th, unaware that it was about to be added to Netflix the following day. Once it was added to Netflix, I watched all 61 episodes in two days. Terrific show. Everything about it is so good. Every single character has tremendous depth and personality. The story is great. The action scenes are good. There is very little pointless filler; all of the "filler" episodes are entertaining and contain something of substance or importance to the characters or main plot. (Well, except for "The Great Divide.") I remember it being a good show when I watched it as a kid, but I was blown away re-watching it now as an adult. It is clear that it was not created simply for kids. The subjects and themes it tackles (war, death, loss, betrayal, honor, identity, being what you want to be instead of what other people want you to be) are heavy, and the humor is just as funny to 21-year-old me as it was to 8-year-old me. I'm debating whether or not to watch The Legend of Korra now. I've never seen it before. The reviews I've seen online have been mixed—some people love it, some people hate it, all agree that it isn't as good as ATLA. I don't want to watch it if it's just going to disappoint me. Thoughts?

I touched on something weird in that last paragraph. Did you notice it? Toward the bottom. Yeah, that's it: somehow I'm 21 years old. I'm now old enough to do whatever I want (except rent a car). In fact, I'm supposed to be in Vegas right now, celebrating my 21st birthday with some beer and poker, but a certain virus had other ideas. Nevertheless, it's bizarre to me that by pretty much every definition I am now an adult. It's especially bizarre to me that I'm talking about it here, the community I joined as a cringe-inducing 13-year-old.

I mentioned at the onset of this post that this is not an "I'm back" thread. I alluded to the idea that I'll probably never be "back" permanently. I don't think it's that I've outgrown this community. Although I suppose I am an adult, and acting like you've "outgrown" things society may deem to be childish is a thing adults tend to do, I don't feel like an adult, and I don't conform to that mindset. Rather, I think it's that Vizzed has finished doing for me what it was intended to do. This community was a vital part of my life and my development during my middle school and early high school days. It did so much for me. I've never been a socially inclined person, and during the time where people started dating or hanging out with friends outside of school, the Vizzed community provided that social connection for me. Saying that I didn't have friends in middle school and high school would be a lie, but I didn't have close friends until my senior year of high school, and there is a substantial difference. The Vizzed community were my close friends. I was able to switch over from my real life to a whole different world, where everyone had usernames instead of real names, and profile pictures instead of faces. A world where people were judged only based on the things that they said (of course, that got me in some trouble later on, but let's not talk about that ). I don't think it's any coincidence that when I was dealing with loneliness my sophomore year of college that I came back full-force, only to disappear again in the summer, when I went back to work and the void was filled by the strong relationships I have with my campers. Perhaps that's why I found my way back here now, as New York State continues its 10th (9th? 11th?) week of lockdown.

It does pain me to see that this community is a shell of its former self. I also feel guilty, because I know I'm not doing my part in keeping it alive. I do feel optimistic, though. Perhaps many people no longer visit this site for the same reason as me. Maybe the Vizzed community was filling a hole for them as well, and now that hole has been filled by something more tangible.

I had no idea where I was going with this post when I started typing, but I'm content with the words that came out. I hope everyone is doing well. I'd love to hear from whoever is still around to see this.

Took forever to read this, no way I'll have the time to type out a reasonable reply. This post sounds like a success story to me, I'm older than you, yet have gotten pretty much no where. That's probably alright though, life is about happiness moreso than achievement.

The Community is at a low point, yes, but as you know, this happens periodically. We'll get an upswing again eventually. Maybe you won't be here to see it, but rest assured that some people are still trying their hardest. I've made some friends on here whom were newer members, and that's what matters. Welcoming new users to the best of our abilities. I think some people forget that. There's a mod post quota again now though, so the mods at the very least will be keeping some activity.

English is a fun language, very weird though, I enjoy the vocabulary part, but grammar has never exactly been interesting to me. It's more like a requirement for being taken seriously. You probably made the right choice in the way of fulfillment, being a Lawyer can be life sapping, hope your finances don't suffer later though.

I think being paid to work as a councilor would be overall more fun than teaching at a school, I wonder if there's any camp that runs all year?

It's strange to imagine anyone here has anything to do with the word rich, I make less than minimum wage, and don't really know anyone who isn't middle class or below, but I suppose your family is probably going places.

I had Pokémon cards as a kid, I think my ex stole them. She stole a good portion of everything I owned, that was a horrible relationship. I remember just loving the artwork, and the strange plastic board you could use with the cards.

I love Avatar, but having watched through it three times, I wonder if I should go for it again, or skip straight to Korra. Problem with Korra is it's not SpongeBob, so Nick didn't give it the funding or time slots it deserved.

A lot of birthdays are being ruined by this pandemic, I'm sure some of the nearly 100,000 deaths were on or near someone's birthday. Scary time. I got here at the age of 12 I believe. I think Vizzed is just lost in another time. This entire site is like a snapshot of 2010. We can't get the new members we need with the current scheme and culture. Twitter and Reddit engulf all.

Hey, we'll welcome you back everytime you post, and if you never post again, we'll all miss you jointly. I've never stopped looking back fondly at those I knew, and perhaps that's what makes me keep coming back. That's probably why most of us stick around. So I'm sure there's plenty here who have fond memories of you here as well.

I wouldn't count on much in the way of replies, people have been sticking to the easy to reply to posts recently. Maybe you should've posted this in the Pokémon Elimination thread? Could've tricked 'em.

Hey man! Long time no see!!

It was strange for you to disappear so suddenly, but real life is a priority for everyone, even more if life is being chaotic. At times like those, we sometimes even forget to do everything we wanted to do.

I'm doing fine, the confinement halted all my plans but it may also lead to other opportunities. I've also started dating my girlfriend, meeting a lot of interesting people and even welcoming new family members since you were here for the last time. I've also had my downs in this rollercoaster we call life, but hey, everyone has them and the most important thing is that the ups greatly outweigh the downs.

I've also felt the void in sports. Winter sports couldn't finish properly due to coronavirus, and motorsports could hardly even start their respective seasons. We've had a few e-sports races in different categories to at least entertain ourselves, and also some categories have started reliving classic races from the past (sometimes way too much into the past lol). And the silly season has already started for F1, so we have that talking point as well all over the news.

I agree that we all had a point in which this website filled a hole for us. I'm not sure if mine has actually been filled by something else yet, but I do agree that since I got real life going the time for me to leave is drawing closer. I don't see myself staying here as a non-staff member after nearly 6 years dedicating to staff duties, the boards have never been a main focus for me and if I no longer have the time to contribute to this place I'll close that chapter in my life and move on. But it will take some time before that happens, and I'll try to get the most of it while I still can.

This site may be a shell of what it once was, but it's still up and going. Even if our peak passed, we can still continue afloat. Tough times lie ahead, but I'm sure we'll sort them out and survive in one form or another.

Welcome back (for however long you're here )! I just returned to vizzed last month. I was gone for a year and a half. Check out my updates thread if you want to see what's been going on with me!

It's always a hard thing to change career paths, but it becomes easy and rewarding when it is more fulfilling for you. I'm glad I changed from Psychology to Social Work because those classes have been more fun than my original classes would have been! And I'm meeting some amazing people.

Thank you for coming back to update us and check in! It's great to hear about the opportunities you've had and how those have been fulfilling/impactful for you!

And yeah, activity on vizzed is very low. I'm one of the users who's been keeping it alive since I came back. But it isn't as much of a priority as everything in real life, so I know I won't be around constantly especially once mid-August rolls around and I'll be a junior in college.

pennylessz : I should clarify, my family is not rich. We live in a small apartment here because my step-dad works here. He is the chef for the club, and being able to live in the apartment is one of the perks of the job. The rich people mostly live in New York City, and stay here when they feel like going on a mini vacation or getting out of the city.

I'd say three replies is pretty good, although going for the Elimination thread might not have been a bad idea lol.

EX Palen : Congrats on the new family members!

I know Vizzed will survive, I just want so much more for it. I feel like it deserves to do more than just survive.

Pacman+Mariofan : Hey man. I'm glad you're happy with your switch to Social Work. Hope your last two years of college go well!

Yo, you've been quite busy lol. Glad you are having such an eventful life, must be fun! Teaching sounds like a cool job, I couldn't be a good teacher as I can't really explain things in a way most people could understand, especially when it comes to Technology. Whatever you do with your life, we'll support you and I hope you can be happy with your choices in life!

tgags123 : Yeah! I'm looking forward to my last 2 years of college because now I'll be having a lot more classes for my major. My gen ed classes like Math and English classes are mostly done.