What've you all done in the 7-10 year gap?

[Mariotroid]

Suffered .dental illness throughout 2009-2012. Worked out a FUCKTON. Got a Boyfriend. Broke up. Went to school for game development. Dropped out. Worked out more did crossfit. Got a job at subway (spent most of my money on games and going out with friends). Tried to make fangames ghat never saw the light of day. Draw stuff here n there. Attended school for illustration. Dropped out. Realized I was trans. Got on HRT. Got a girlfriend. Moved out with a friend. Moved in with my GF. Broke up with her (still dunno if I should have). Moved back home. Attended college for illustration. Graduated last week. Going into video game development at the local college. Yup. Eventful.

[Storm Okapi]

• Was on the YouChew forums from 2011 until it closed and split in September 2018, then moved to one of the two boards that split from it, then moved to that board's Discord when it closed due to low traffic.
  
• Graduated high school in 2014. I've been meaning to get my life together since then, but my parents haven't done much to help me move out, get a job, or start dating.
  
• Starting exploring my sexuality, pretty sure I'm bi.
  
• Came up with an idea for a written series that's science fantasy with elements of biopunk. Planning to make it into a series of games or pitch it as an animated series on whatever streaming platform will pick it up.
  

[Tech]

It's been a bit more than 10 years since I was last active on MFGG, but in short, this is what's happened to me:

- Active member from 2004 to 2007
- Left MFGG for another forum, which was a bad decision
- Turned 18 in 2008, started going outside more, meeting new people, going out to places, being 18-21 were probably the best 3 years of my life
- Lost interest in Nintendo around 2008
- Spent 2009-2011 playing COD
- Moved out of home in 2012, started to dip into the wrong things, and getting involved with the not-so-right people
- Moved back home in 2015 to get away from said things
- Started to really get into Team Fortress 2 in 2014, helped run a 2fort TF2 server from 2015 to end of 2017
- Got into Overwatch on its release in 2016, still play the game to this day
- Got a Switch in late 2017 and started to like Nintendo again
- Got a full time job in 2011, still working to this day, aiming to have my own house in the next 3 years

I've probably forgotten a few things but eh.

[Neo Hyper Yoshi]

Things have been eventful for me. Warning, novel incoming;

* I did a course in graphic design in college but never graduated. A combination of a serious lack of identity / confidence would do that. I hit my stride too late so to speak. However, I did finish a course in Multimedia and did quite well. Maybe it something I'll revisit someday

* I was in the MRA / MGTOW ( Men Going Their Own Way ) movement from between 2006 - 2008. Even had quite a popular blog. However, I realized how insanely toxic some of the ideals were, that it was causing me more harm than good and straight up left the community and closed the blog. I remember posting some of my thoughts at the time here and how one person responded saying that they'd lost all respect for me.

* Honestly, a large chunk of my 20s were generally rather stagnant. I didn't have a job, no real interests, I was paranoid and anxious a lot and probably drank too much to boot. It was a mixture of probably some form of PSTD from my rocky Teenage years and general lack of confidence.

* I did start to express myself more and start to find my sense of self when I became a part of the Irish Fighting Game Community, which was in it's infancy back in 2010 thanks to the release of Street Fighter 4. Fighting Games gave me a new lease of life and was probably the main catalyst for who I am today. This was also the first time I would meet people I knew online when I started traveling to events and / or casuals. It was nerve racking at first but now it's something I do without a second thought. Even though I don't play fighting games seriously anymore ( Yeah, let's just say Street Fighter 5 ain't as good as Street Fighter 4 ) I still go to casuals, attend events and volunteer at Celtic Throwdown, Ireland's big yearly fighting game event, which incidentally is ran by one of the people I first spoke to when I attended my very first event back in 2010!

* I went to Australia in 2013 for 2 years, achieving a life goal as well doing it to shake off the sense of apathy that plagued most of my 20s. It wasn't easy at times and there was some scary moments but I lived to tell the tale but it worked. It also helped me find self confidence I didn't know I had as well as form meaningful friendships with people.

* I tried working hospitality when I came home in 2015 but to say it was a disaster is an understatement. The chaotic and often understaffed nature of the industry at least in Ireland eventually took it's toll on me and led to my first and this far only direct sacking from a job and a nice scar on my left thumb as well to boot.

* Following that incident and after coming out of my self imposed hibernation of 2 weeks, I picked up Fallout 4 as it happened to have come out that week as I was interested in trying it. That game single handedly not only bring me out of the funk I was in but also reignited my passion for gaming. At that point, I was through with doing what was expected of me and began to seize control of myself and who I was. If people didn't like it, screw 'em!

* I had a bit of a health scare and as a result, stopped drinking for 9 months. During this time, I took part in many activities via meetup in my area, including surfing and coasteering around the coast. Nifty things like that. It was fun.

* In the midst of this, I saw a job posting online where even though I had next to no knowledge of World of Warcraft at the time, I'd kick myself at I didn't at least try. That was how I landed a temp job as a Blizzard GM for the launch of the WoW Legion expansion. That is also what got me into WoW because I didn't want to be that guy who knew nothing of the game and I got the expansion for free and free game time. I still play today and have been playing classic when it launched last week as I never played vanilla back in 2004.

* After the temp job ended, I did some computer courses to try and get some skills for the future through social welfare ( so I got paid to go to these courses ) the basic IT maintenance course was fantastic and the guy who ran it was strict but ran it well. The Networking and Cloud courses I did, not so much ( ahem. )

* Speaking of WoW, I began following a bunch of WoW streamers but never really took to any of them because they either played Horde or were NA based ( EU based Alliance player here ) Until one fateful Saturday night in early 2017 when I was bored and decided to have a look specifically as to what female WoW streamers happened to be on. I didn't spend much time in or end up following any of the streams I found that night...... except one. Incidentally it was first streamer I looked at as she was near the top of the WoW Category but the one that compelled me to come back after looking at others, I followed her and her twitter that night and ended up subbing a few weeks later and eventually found myself a part of her pretty awesome and neat community. Would anyone here know of the Streamer Anniefuchsia? I've since gone to a 3 Dreamhacks in Sweden and have met her a few times, she really is a great person and isn't afraid to acknowledge her flaws.

* As for work, I currently work in a call center for a telecoms company. Ironically for the all the crap that industry gets, I've never felt more settled in any job before this one. It's actually a nice feeling. It hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows though. Last year the company went through some major structural changes, bringing everything, including the call centers back in house. Unfortunately, this resulted in a month 6 period where we were so understaffed, the company probably broke some labor laws. However, this chaotic and never ending flow of calls for months on ( along with other issues ) took it's toll me and I ended up completely burnt out mentally, had to go on medical leave for 2 and a half weeks and ended up on medication for anxiety ( though tbh, it's something I have should have done way before even I started in the call centre. ) However, I came back because I knew it would end and things would improve, which it did thankfully at the start of the year.

* Speaking of medication. It's been a help with handling my anxiety but I have my bad days too along with the good. I should really go back to counseling so I can heal the source so I can eventually get off the medication. I don't feel ashamed to be on it and I have no problem with talking about it, it's just something that is.

So that's my life story.