From An Old Friend

[tia3]

Hi,

I'm not sure if anyone would remember me or not. I was feeling nostalgic tonight and tried to find my old fanfic from the original pokegym via Wayback Machine (it wasn't there). Then, I looked up the pokegym here...

I just wanted to say hello, see if anyone's left who would remember who I am. A lot changes in a decade.

Anyway, I hope you're all doing well.

Hugs,

tia3

 

[Marril]

Saw your user name and was like, hey, that sounds vaguely familiar, then clicked on the thread and was like, hey, there's a nostalgia bomb (although sadly I don't remember which one your fanfic was). I don't know if you'd remember me or not (although to say I'm different now compared to back then would be a hyperbolic understatement for the ages) but hey, can't hurt to post.

 

[tia3]

Hi Marril,

Everything from that period of my life is sort of like a dream I can only half-remember. I wrote "The Journey Called Life" waaaaaaaaay back then (I think I got to about 16 or 18 chapters), moderated the fiction forum for a little while... Then, my life kind of went crazy, lol.

I work in the mental health field now, and I'm also still writing. I hold a twice-monthly writing group in my area... Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)? I'm also a NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison for my county, and my goal is to finish a novel through final edits in the next year.

To say a lot has hanged would be a vast understatement. It would be closer to say that almost everything has changed since then. I still love the written word, though.

 

[Marril]

I work in the mental health field now, and I'm also still writing.

I've had some pretty interesting experiences with the mental health field myself, actually—being trans means finding supportive psychs can be and in my case definitely was a challenge (it all worked out in the end though, at least as far as getting on HRT went). Sadly I can't say as I write nearly as much as I want to these days, but that's more a lack of time thing than a lack of interest thing.

Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)?

Yep. I've done it for like the past... I wanna say 7 years? Something like that, anyway. It's always a fun little challenge and actually motivates me to write stuff, which is great because oftentimes I'll just kind of lose momentum in things otherwise.

 

[tia3]

Last year, NaNo kind of changed my life. I actually had a really hard childhood, and I've struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder since I was a teen. I lost all my dreams and gave up on writing... Then, last year, I finally gave NaNoWriMo a real try after BSing it for a couple of years. It was the first thing I'd written that was more than 10 pages long since I was part of the pokegym. Now, my life is all turned around. I don't have as much time to write as I'd like, either, but with all my work and extracurricular activities, I'm spending a good 75 hours or more a week doing really exhausting stuff, and that doesn't leave me either enough time or enough energy for it.

And you're right: Finding good psych can be totally a crap-shot sometimes. I've heard absolute horror stories.