I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that MuseBlog has been a hugely positive formative influence on me. But, as I am a scientist at heart, it wasn’t enough for me to just say “I’m sure I’m not alone.†So I asked some of my friends how they felt about having had MuseBlog in their life for ten years.
Also, I (Dodecahedron) baked an honorary cake with Fern. Julia also baked a cake. Then, with the cake-baking fervor going around, Jadestone made some cupcakes. Pics below the fold.
Jade also made cupcakes!
Dodecahedron:
When I was sixteen I was hospitalized for about two weeks because I was in a severe depression. I’m not sure how many of you remember this specifically happening, as it’s hard for me to remember how much I discussed it at the time, though I’m sure its echoes have haunted me in ways that I’ve described here.
A couple weeks later, I received an unexpected package in the mail – a box full of chocolate, and books, and small trinkets, and kind notes from my friends from MuseBlog.
This ethos of taking care of each other is not unique to MuseBlog, I’m sure, but again and again I’ve seen us uphold it. I am so grateful to have these friends in my life.
Thank you.
-Dodec
Midnight Fiddler:
Between the ages of 9 and 17, I had about 2 people my age that I would consider friends that I knew in real life, so joining MuseBlog when I was 14 was one of the biggest events of my teenage years. From then until now, MB has been a place where I’ve made some of the most steady, solid friendships of my life, and where I’ve felt the most comfortable and most happy through some pretty tumultuous times. In addition, the fact that so many of my early posts are entirely cringeworthy I think speaks to how far you as a community have helped me to come, and I thank you all for bearing with me through it. Here’s to many more years of friendship.
-Fern
Oxlin:
Museblog has been a wonderful home-on-the-internet for me since before the blog actually existed! (Aka: Gaboomba days.) While I have had many adventures with friends from MB (both online and off) I really appreciate being able to go to MBers for support. When I was in high school, MBers were there to listen to my worries about my daily life and, in the same conversation, discuss ideas and philosophy. When I was a sophomore in college, Penty was a new freshman at the same school. A month or two into freshman year, my roommate and I realized that we couldn’t live together and stay friends. During the transition between living with my former roommate and living with a new roommate, Penty and some of her friends took me into their dorm rooms and provided a lot of emotional support. I am very grateful for all the memories I’ve got from this site and the wonderful people who inhabit it. Thank you GAPAs for creating and maintaining such a lovely and welcoming home on the internet!
-Oxlin
Jadestone:
Like it was for many of us, Museblog was my first real introduction to the internet, and I couldn’t have asked for a better portal to this new world. Muse as a magazine shaped my ideas and how I thought about science and literature art; but Museblog shaped how I interact and understand people, friendship, and a whole host of ideas I would otherwise never have been exposed to. I joined the blog when I was in middle school; and continued posting all the way through high school and into college, and I honestly don’t know if I would have made it that far without everyone I met through here to guide and encourage me along the way–including you, dearest GAPA(s). Having you four as mentors in my life was an incredible experience. I’ll never forget all your encouragement when I was struggling through hard times, your words of wisdom about life and college applications, and your exuberant support of all our weird ideas. What other adults did I know who encouraged virtual pie-throwing as a means to resolve petty conflicts??? who else would have so enthusiastically embraced my sudden desire to become a giant space squid????????? Luckily, I’ll never have to ponder about what dark timeline that could have been (I am sorry for all the angsty poetry I wrote you had to read along the way, though).
I know I don’t post daily anymore, esspecially now that I spend 70% of my time internetless in the middle of a desert (literally), but I do read every comment left here still. I’ve known some of you Musers for 8 or 9 years now. I know I’ll be in contact with at least some of you for that many again. It’s been flamablamablous. Here’s to another 10.
Julia:
Muse entered my life when I was eight years old, and I’m 23 now. I haven’t subscribed to the magazine in years and my posts on the blog are now highly infrequent at best. But nearly every day I get to talk to some of my oldest friends. I’m grateful that MuseBlog was there for me as a young adolescent, as a sounding board, diary, and place to learn. But I’m most thankful for the people that it has brought into my life. I’ve placed so much trust in this place and all of you. Thank you.
Kagcomix:
I feel so fortunate to have been given a relatively safe & kind place to grow up on the internet. Thanks, GAPAs for putting in the time & care to moderate & maintain the blog. I couldn’t have asked for a better forum to spend my young teen days on.
Ebeth:
Last year when we were discussing the state of the blog, I described my MuseBlog experience as having a benevolent Tom Riddle’s diary. People I meet today think I’m a very open person, which surprises me because I’ve never been good at getting close to people and for a long time I spent a lot of energy trying to hide my feelings. MuseBlog was the first place I felt really comfortable expressing myself and being vulnerable and that experience led to a drastic improvement in my irl outlook and social life. The friends I made on the blog have been some of the closest and most consistent friends of my entire life (hard to believe I’ve known some of you for almost 10 years!) and although I tend to fade in and out of communication, I’ve never been worried about starting up a conversation again with someone from MB. Thanks GAPAs for creating an environment where weird middle school kids can feel comfortable, and thanks fellow musers for always being around when I need you (whether for moral support, advice, pies to the face, or solidarity against the oncoming HPB menace). Keep being your flamablamablous selves!
Lizzie:
Being a part of this blog has given me some of my longest-lasting friendships. In my middle and high school days, it gave me hope that there were people out there with the same interests as me and minds that worked the same way. In college, I got to meet some of them and those trips are some of my favorite memories. It’s hard to believe it’s been (over) 10 years (for me, with the gaboomba), and I hope it will last another ten!
POSOC:
It’s difficult to overstate the influence that MB has had on my life. I am more open-minded, compassionate, and confident than I otherwise would have been. I’ve made many dear friends here, in spite of my long and irregular absences, and they’ve been there for me when other comforts in my life were few. The blog gave me a creative outlet that helped me to develop my voice as a writer. I’m proud to be a part of the community that was built here, and I am thankful to everyone else who contributed to it, particularly our wonderful Administrators.
Vendaval:
I made some new friends recently, which got me thinking about friendships that last. I’m lucky enough to have quite a few good ones. They’re not all active- some friends are physically distant, others are preoccupied for the next month or two, but they’re all strong friendships. People who I’m not only glad to know, but glad to have been influenced by. People who aren’t just connected by circumstance or happenstance, but mutual attraction. I was delighted to realize that all of my good friends are explorers. I’m so happy Museblog has put me in contact with the most wonderful people, people of arts and sciences, whose orbits are so varied that they’re overlapping at times only because we’re all passionate about exploring. And I’m so grateful to the GAPAs for giving us all a place to grow. I’m incalculably a better person because the blog gave me a place to learn to write and think when I had nowhere else to speak. Professors and peers of our Republic of Letters, thank you for making Muse Academy my proudest alma mater.
Choklit Orange:
Museblog found me in the deep, dark days of middle school and stopped me from feeling alone. I’m lucky beyond words to have met so many warmhearted role models, and to have been pushed to think and do more! Thank you to all of you for sticking with us, and thank you especially to the GAPAs for putting so much work into creating this community. You are true adulting goals. <3
MontgomeryGurl:
Buckle up this is going to get emotional:
Ten years ago, I discovered the Internet and MuseBlog almost simultaneously. I was fourteen, homeschooled, and living in a conservative Christian bubble in the south. More importantly, though I didn’t realize it at the time, I was lonely and hungry for acceptance. I considered myself too strange to be friends with most of the people I met in the town I had recently moved to. When I discovered MuseBlog, I found a lifeline, and suddenly the doors of my contained world flung open. I chatted with people who lived countries away, people who believed many different things about politics and religion, and (maybe most surprising) people who liked the same things as me and seemed to think I was cool. I vividly remember posting a comment I was sure was hilarious, and then refreshing the page on my interminably slow dial-up connection until the comment was approved, then checking back periodically throughout the day to see if someone had replied. I had found my tribe, and I found myself with a place to be a version of myself I hadn’t known existed. I debated politics and religion, interrogating my own beliefs in a way I had never done, and I found that sometimes I was wrong and the sky did not fall. And, eventually, I found myself growing more confident in my interactions with my peers I saw in “real life” as I learned that my opinion and personality could be valued by people.
We found creative ways to exchange contact information (sorry admins), and for all of high school many of my closest friends were people I had never met in person. I was able to express sides of myself I did not know how to show to my family, homeschool group, and youth group. MuseBloggers were Instant Messaging me when I first watched Buffy and Firefly, they ranted about individualism alongside me during my Ayn Rand phase (yikes, I’m sorry guys), they recommended beautiful books, and they moved with me when I left Louisiana for Tennessee and a year later left for college. Even before I met a few friends from this blog in person, I knew my “internet friends” we’re real friends, people who stuck by me through many transitions and struggles even when their presence was limited to text in an AIM window. Unexpectedly, the relationships I formed here became some of the most consistent presences in my life.
I’ve never been able to fully explain this piece of my life to people I’ve known. I can’t fully explain how, for many years, my life expanded with every AIM window popping up on my computer and every comment posted on one of these threads. I can’t explain how much of a gift this place was to me, how MuseBlog and the friendships I formed here were a saving grace in my complicated high school career. I am still a Christian and a moderate proponent of homeschooling, but more and more I have seen how stifling that kind of environment can be, and I realize how difficult it often was for me to find my place in the world. I cannot imagine who I would have been during high school without MuseBlog as a counter balance to the rest of my life. Sometimes I try to trace the threads that have made me who I am, and I honestly believe that a huge factor enabling me to become a confident and well-adjusted adult was my experience on this forum. You all expanded my horizons while accepting me, and in doing so gave me a space to become myself. I owe this blog so, so much. Thank you.
—
Thank you, GAPAs, for everything you have done for us. Here’s to (at least) 10 more years!
(This thread is intended to be a space for everyone to share stories and kind words. Please, add yours!)
♥
for old times’ sake: FIRST
♥ ♥ ♥
Love to all of you!
(and now I get to eat the Museblog cupcake!)
<3<3<3
<3 I haven't read all of these all the way through honestly because I don't want to cry right now. MuseBlog, you've known me since I was an annoying 12-year-old who honestly didn't really know how interacting with other people worked. And y'all saw me through a lot.
MuseBlog was my first real experience of getting to know people outside of my very small bubble. I cannot express how important this was to young, sheltered me, to have basically this big diverse Internet family. One example that really stands out to me is that I didn't really know that being LGBT+ was a thing that people I knew could be, that I could be. And you were the people who helped little baby queer 13-year-old me figure this out.
MB was the first place I felt like I had a real community of any sort, where I had a place, despite being so terribly awkward and clueless. And to think that I am now the same age as those of you that younger me considered to be the Mature People here. Turns out that we’re all still growing.
Though I’ve become a bit more distant from y’all in the last couple of years, some of you have become so near and dear to me. Meeting Shadowfire was essentially the fulfillment of young me’s dreams to someday meet one of you wonderful people and that just felt so… yep, I’m starting to cry.
So I guess what I’m saying is… Thank you all so much. You made me feel so much less alone when it really mattered. You gave me friends. You gave me a place where I’ll always feel safe. You gave me a place where conflicts are resolved through rational conversation. You gave me a place where a clueless kid on the Internet was allowed to make mistakes and gently be helped to learn from them.
And I hope this wonderful corner of the Internet that is MB sticks around to keep doing the same for others.
MuseBlog was also one of my first internet experiences and I really can’t thank all of you enough. My first posts were awful and my rants/plaints continued in that vein for years, but they helped me get through some tough times that I don’t know how I’d have dealt with if I hadn’t had your loving support. The GAPAs were there for me when my family fell apart and I didn’t have any adult mentors to turn too.
((Sorry, someone is chopping onions in my room. I am not crying or anything of that ilk.))
I remember the crazy RPGs, the Pie Wars, Ship’s Logs… My fellow MBers also broadened my horizons. I’m setting off to Africa in a little less than two months, to a job I never would’ve dared take if I hadn’t heard about other, older MBers running off to sea and the like instead of pursuing the only path my mother found acceptable (college, career,
ckids).Here’s to 10 years of awesomeness! May all your pies fly straight and true.
Really all I should have said was this: thank you and I love you.
P.S. the cake is delicious.
♥ ♥ ♥
As the Cowardly Lion said in “The Wizard of Oz”: “Shucks, folks, I’m speechless!”
Same here. *melts*
I thought I would pop by even though my message is above and say hello. It’s been a long time since I’ve been by, but I’m so glad to see this place is still around. You’ve meant a lot to me!
Good to hear from you, too! Just the other day I was wondering how you were doing.
I am indebted to my fellow MuseBloggers in the same way that I am indebted to my mother and father, to an inexpressible and unrepayable amount. MuseBlog is really an extraordinary thing, one of the miraculous impossibilities of the Oasis, and yet it feels like the most natural thing in the world; I cannot imagine my life without it. Although my journeys may take me far from the site, its spirit is woven into the deepest fibers of my heart. To the GAPAs I am especially grateful. As I get older, I am able to see what deep impressions you have made on me, and if I am ever blessed to meet any of you in person, I think I would fall to my knees in gratitude.
though autumn comes to
evergreen Mount Tokiwa
there should be no change
in its hues the winds borrowed
brilliant leaves to carry here
– Sakanoe no Korenori
may life go on like
this flowing smoothly with no
ripple to mar it
until we meet each of us
in our eight thousandth year
– KÅkÅ TennÅ
Well, what can one say?
*hugs*
*pies*
*tea*
Happy anniversary, MuseBlog! Words can’t express how glad I am to have discovered this community and to have been part of it for the short while I have.
I just got hit by the most incredible pie ever! Delicious and strangely tear-inducing.
10 years, holy cow! Glad I decided to drop by today!
Haha, that “awaiting moderation” cake is awesome! And delicious-looking!
Thanks for all the fun memories, guys.
Happy Birthday, MB!
One thing I really love about this place is that there are people here from many different backgrounds, and we still all get along and everything despite those differences.
On another note, you guys have inspired me to make a pie. It will probably be all store-bought ingredients, but one has to start somewhere.
This community means so much to me. MuseBlog was my first online community, and I’ve always thought of it as home.
You all truly have seen me at my worst, and guided me through the rougher times of my life. You’ve helped to shape me into the person I am today.
Thank you, each and every one of you, for teaching me valuable lessons, just for talking to me, for engaging with my young self, and for supporting me now.
It means so much.
To be honest… I’ve never really felt accepted into this community. I usually feel ignored or under-appreciated, or looked down on. It could be because you all share the same interests except with me (besides books, but that’s about it) Or it could be because of my age, and all of the stereotypes surrounding that. Or maybe it’s my fault, because it always is.
Either way, congratulations Museblog for ten awesome years! Has the magazine been running for longer or about the same?
Catwings, you’re an exuberantly essential part of this community and as MBerly as anyone here.
Muse started in 1997, so it’s almost twice as old as MuseBlog.
I really have to agree with Catwings here. To all of you 20-somethings, looking at us must be about the same as us looking at a toddler, age-wise. I know that there are greater and more numerous developmental differences between a toddler and a 13-year-old as opposed to a 13-year-old and a 20-year-old, but I still worry about sounding immature whenever I write a post on the blog, which has also held me back from posting as much as I would like. I really wish that I could have what all of you people did years ago, but now I’m worried that you are all so much older and past that phase of your lives. I just wish that we could all find more common ground age-wise, so you wouldn’t have to sit through any boring and unneeded posts that you can’t even relate to, or perhaps think is just so funny or cute or immature or whatever. *sigh*
In other news, congratulations museblog on a full decade of success!
We want to hear what you have to say! Whenever I hang out with my whole family, my 13 year old cousin is the one I like hanging out with the most because she and her 16 year old brother love a lot of the same books and webcomics I do. Yes we are older than you are, but I can very much relate to being thirteen. I remember being thirteen. I don’t remember being a toddler.
Hi Noah (and catwings)
I wasn’t going to reply to catwings’ post because Robert said everything that needed to be said and more eloquently than I would have, but you raised a few points I want address. I’m on my phone and not logged in, so sorry if I’m repeating something that other people have said.
I am 24. I feel very different from when I was 13, or 18, or even 21 (I think 22 was a year of a lot of personal growth, for whatever reason). I still remember how I felt at those ages, though – not every detail, but the main outlines, and honestly not all the changes have been good. I still like interacting with people younger than me, though – i teach middle school and high school students violin, so I’ve had sustained exposure, and they’re not some special different species, they’re people who react and interact like people. I don’t think I’m as energetic now as I was then, but if I only talked to people exactly like me I’d never talk to anyone. Basically, what I’m saying is yes, there are differences between being 13 and being 24, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear your thoughts. Also I think a lot of us secretly like being nostalgic about one of the most miserable periods of life, for whatever reason? So totally relatable.
Second: I have very few interests in common with most people on here, and even fewer with most of the mbers I talk to regularly. Most of the year I spend 90% of my waking hours thinking about music and violin, which makes it hard to have interests. What we have in common is an interest in each other and in listening to each other.
Third: its late and I need sleep bye
You shouldn’t be intimidated by us older users, we like talking to you and hearing what you have to say. We’re only 20-something users because we came to MB as tweens or teens and liked it too much to ever leave.
Aw, I’m sorry to hear that you feel like that, Catwings and Noah, but honestly the young people bring something very important to this site.
Believe it or not, Catwings, you’ve only been part of this online community for about a year less than I have! And I can kind of empathize with your feelings about being young because while I may seem part of the ‘older crowd’, I’m one of the few MBers still in high school.
But! Our varied interests are what make us such a unique community! And I hope you’ll continue to stay with us because I really would miss the online presence I’ve gotten to know, and seen grow and mature throughout the years.
17, 17.2 – It’s true that the average MBer age has risen over the years, and it may seem harder to relate to the older, more “mature” part of the community. No worries! Maturity is mostly just an act, and age has little to do with maturity anyways. Be yourself and have fun!
Happy 10th anniversary, MuseBlog! I believe I joined around 2008 (9?)… I can’t recall the year at all for some reason!
!
Regardless, this community has been such an important part of my life for all these years, and I continue to visit with pleasure! So many things in my life have changed from ages 13-19, looking back I realise it’s actually been reassuring to have this community as a constant. It’s somewhere I can share how I’m feeling or what I’m doing, receive and give advice, read and write (as the new Random Thread has reminded me)…
You are all true friends to me; the fact that we communicate online and that we probably live thousands of miles apart in real life doesn’t change how meaningful these friendships are to me. Thank you MuseBlog for being such a diverse, interesting, friendly and understanding community. And to the GAPAs who make it all possible:
Selenium,
According to the chronological list of MBers that you thoughtfully compiled, you arrived on the blog under the name “bella the aviatrix” on September 24, 2009.
Ah, yes. I was indeed 13, then. Thanks!
To my fellow Musebloggers and the GAPAs,
Thank you for making my high school years incredible, and in all honesty, I would not be the creative writer I am today without Museblog. You encouraged and fueled my creative spirit, taught me how to shoot a blaster, gave me advice, and buried me a pies and choklit when I needed cheering up. This is a special community that I am proud to be a member of.
Love,
Kittymine
Dear Everyone: If there is a Tesla Motors shop in your area and your parents want to do one of the free test-drives, they should go for it, because it’s awesome.
You know I wrote about MuseBlog in my college application? Thanks for getting me into the school that’s now my home, guys.
But of course MB has been a home too. I think I’ve been around for almost seven years, which is almost a third of my life, which is pretty wild. I can’t imagine if I had decided not to post that first time in 2008.
I’m so lucky to know all of you. Thank you! ♥
I’ve been here since August 2006 — almost nine years now! Crazy how time flies; that’s almost half my life. (Can you believe I joined when I was 10?) Thanks for getting me through middle school (sorry you had to put up with middle-school me), teaching me Internet etiquette, helping me question what I knew about the world and become more open-minded, and generally for everything, MB! Sorry for all those times I’ve annoyed you all. Thanks for everything.
When looking back at the nearly six years I’ve been here, I’m just amazed at the effect MuseBlog has had on my life. MB led me to discover, directly or indirectly, so many of my past and present interests that I really think I’d be a totally different person without it; it’s kind of startling to think about.
I joined MB in middle school, which was a pretty bad time in my life. But no matter how alone I felt in the real world (and however much I prayed that someone else at my school would see my HPB t-shirt and turn out to be another ‘blogger) I was still an MBer, which meant I was a cool person who knew about Muse and pies and the bunny apocalypse and all kinds of stuff. I felt like there was at least one place in the world where I belonged.
And not only did joining MB let me meet all of you flamablamablous people, it paved the way for me finally making some IRL friends. MuseBlog taught me to be more open-minded and better at talking to people, but what’s more, it also introduced me to things like Doctor Who and Homestuck, which I promptly became obsessed with. This made it easy to make friends with shared interests. (I don’t watch Doctor Who anymore, but I’ve kept the friends.)
I know I don’t post on here very much anymore; I guess I just feel like I don’t have that much to say, compared with the rest of you. I’m still in high school (one more year!) and just generally don’t lead a very exciting life. But I still come here and read the posts nearly every day, with no intention of stopping. I have full faith that there will still be MuseBloggers around- no matter what happens- to celebrate the 20th anniversary when it arrives.
♥