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I Didn't Play Minecraft, or Use This Site For About Three Years - and It's the Best Decision I've Ever Made.

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Skullduggerycain's Avatar Skullduggerycain
Level 33 : Artisan Geek
99
Now before you go and start yelling at me in the comments, understand that I have nothing against Minecraft, or PMC. I think they're both great, and have done a lot of great things for a lot of great people. But really, just hear me out. I've been meaning to write this for a while. but I finally had the time now, and I figured, why not?


In 5th grade, about half of my life revolved around this site. I made a lot of friends on the site, which was great, because I only had about 10 real friends. My Instagram account had about 25 followers, but I didn't mind. This site and the game which it serves had created a great outlet for me.
My social skills weren't necessarily the best, though. I could write well, but in person, I had trouble actually assembling a coherent sentence, partially because most of my social interaction was done online, where I could compose and articulate a sentence before sending it.
So I was mildly devastated when I was banned from the PMC chat room. I was suddenly sealed off from a solid 75% of the friends I had. It was my fault, of course. I sent a link that I didn't realize could cause a seizure, but looking back on it now, I'm not sure how it hadn't come to mind. Little did I know, however, that this was really a blessing in disguise.
Fifth grade ended, and that summer, I was getting ready for the transition to ~middle school~, which, for 11-year-old me, was like stepping into a whole new world. That summer though, I met a lot of new people. I realized that moping around wasn't going to do anything, so instead, I tried to make friends. By the time the beginning of the school year rolled around, I was already better off socially. 6th grade began, and suddenly, I wasn't socially awkward anymore. I became friends with the popular kids, and, suddenly, I was popular! My Instagram and Snapchat blew up. My followers went from 25 to 250, and my Snap Score went from 500 to 75,000. I'm not saying that popularity should matter to you, but to somebody who had had very few friends who he could talk to in person for the entirety of his life, it felt pretty good.
The popular kids didn't last, though. I stopped hanging out with them in mid seventh grade. Stuff got too real too quickly, kids started taking some pretty serious drugs. One of them OD'd at the beginning of this year, god rest his soul. I realized that that wasn't the kind of person who I wanted to be, either. At that point though, it didn't really matter. I had made enough connections to be much better off than I was before. At this point, I hadn't launched Minecraft in a year and a half. Honestly, I had sort of forgotten about it.
I was a completely different person at this point. I felt like other things in my life were more important, that they would take priority. My life was really changing for the better, I had more friends, and I honestly just felt cooler. My left felt more fulfilled. I was happy when I was playing Minecraft, but I was happier knowing that I didn't depend on it, although it didn't often cross my mind.
At the end of 7th grade, I cut my hair. I replaced my bowl-esque cut with something more... Sartorius-y? It was nice. It was yet another thing that made me feel happier, more confident in myself. Now, at 14, my life has changed for the better. I don't like to measure my success by followers on social media, but I think it's a nice gauge of how my social life has improved. My Instagram went from 25 followers after existing for a year, to slightly over 1,000 after existing for about 4. Frankly, I feel more fulfilled. Not because of a sense of popularity, but a sense of fulfillment. I think that the fact that I was able to get rid of my dependence on a video game and a website for personal happiness is a good thing, something that I value. Writing this is the first time I've used this site in about two years, I can't tell you how long it took to remember my password.
If Minecraft makes you happy, that's fantastic. Same goes for this site. Ultimately in life, you should do whatever you think will make you the happiest. But if you were like 11-year-old me, I'd take this to heart. You don't need to give up anything, including your friends. But I guarantee you, the best way to be happy is almost always just to put yourself out there. Making new friends, discovering new strengths, working on old weaknesses, it's unbelievably satisfying. Spending less time gaming is actually great for so many reasons, but it helped me tremendously. Thank you all for reading, have a great rest of your day.
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1
03/31/2017 7:37 am
Level 60 : High Grandmaster Architect
Bluecolty
Bluecolty's Avatar
I applaud you for making that good choice about not hanging out with those "cool kids" gosh I sound like a teacher. Anyways... Very inspirational words, it's not common to see this sorta stuff
1
03/30/2017 5:04 pm
Level 52 : Grandmaster Cake
stella
stella's Avatar
heyy, i recently have been having some self-stress because of friends and stuff. Not major, just personal stuff and this sorta gave me a new light, and a different angle to look at it from.. thank you<3
1
03/29/2017 1:26 am
Level 4 : Apprentice Miner
Ear
Ear's Avatar
Completely true, I personally got back into the game after a hiatus of about 15 months, just from lack of interest, sport and going on a big exchange program. By the sounds of it, you don't play MC anymore and that has had a positive impact on your life. Personally, after getting back into it I have realized the positive impacts it made in my younger life, the creativity, friends, but what I think is most important, the ability to escape from assignments, gossip and the crappy weather outside. It has also taught me time management as the workload is increasing, but my passion for the game is increasing as well.

All in all, a break of a couple months, or even years in your case, can really open your eyes to the world. In your case, it has shown that MC was a great thing for you earlier, but nowadays, other stuff is important. Its better to have these big thinking moments sooner rather than later.

Cheers,
Ear
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