My Story (It's been 5 years already?)

I remember my first day on ECC very vividly, going into the PVP arena, getting killed multiple times, ending up selling cobblestone at spawn for 0.05ECD, then giving it away for free when nobody bought it. A particularly rough start if you ask me. I was about to quit, being the nearly-autistic 5th grader that I was, but there was one player, one player who was just about the nicest person I've ever met online. He set me up with a temporary house, and sat me down at a fishing table so that I could make money. Soon, I had enough money to buy a 10x10 plot at the very end of a street. That first 1k felt like it took an eternity to get to, until the mayor suddenly raised the price to 5k, but the house was so worth it. I also remember finding a torn up house in the wild. After fixing it up a bit, I realized that it would be griefed sooner or later, so I put up a sign that said, "Protected by server administrators." The house was gone in less than 2 hours.

Anyways, I soon got Resident a few months later, and I got a huge 20x20 plot from Jackson_G14, but the thing was, I wasn't exactly the best with money back then, so it took me about a week of grinding to get 14k. Sad, I know. But it worked out in the end. Then Mayor came; Concordia, my work of art, took nearly 2 years to finish, but it was beautiful in the end. President gave me Forsythia, a reconstructed abandoned town adjacent to my first one; It was alright, I guess. Tycoon was a "just cause" rank for me, with no real benefits. The next year, I realized that I had saved up enough nether stars and mined ores that I could become Ecoleader. I was looking upon my final goal on ECC.

But enough about ranks. As many of us know, my elementary school years spent on here were a bit of a horror show. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll provide some links:
https://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/my-statue-and-other-stuffs.46559/
https://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/my-day.46675/
https://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/my-quest.47070/
Yeah, I'm not exactly proud of those moments, but i guess they humbled me quite a bit because of the response to two of those threads: none. Nobody wanted to associate with me, and I felt ashamed of myself. Throughout middle school, we just had so much unnecessary pressure, and very little freedom. In 2014, my grandfather had died at the age of 87 with a smoking-related illness. That January was the coldest I had ever felt; my friends were of little support. Of course, those years were the ones that left the greatest impression on me.

3 years later, it's present day. I'm in 10th grade now, but the many programs and needs I must fulfill take up the majority of my time, so I am usually only free during the night. The pressure to maintain straight A's, even in AP and BS classes, is enormous. I remember being scared of one class because I was teetering on the edge of A/B. Now, when I'm around the students I don't know, the best thing that I can do is not bring attention to myself. Part of me doesn't understand how I changed from being so excited, crazed, and carefree, to a completely different person, quiet and frightful of others. Now, I absolutely cannot stand apathy and incompetence. Not people who don't do so well per se, but those who do not try.

I know that this was long, but it felt important to me that I let you guys know how you have shaped my life. Thank you all.

P.S
Here are some photos of me. The first one was taken at the end of my fifth grade year, I'm the one in the Pokemon shirt, of course. Then there's one of me today. I'm a bit larger, an entire foot taller (5feet 4inches), and much more athletic, yet only 15 pounds heavier. 5 years, such a huge difference.



-Dylan