Thread for Old Heads
Posted by: Missing? NO!
Date: 2020-06-26 00:06:38
I've been here for about 13 years now. I first started visiting when you were able to adopt a Glitch Pokemon on the front page, and then I joined this site when I was 9 (god we're not even gonna talk about the posts… or my grammar, lol). I was in third grade when I joined, had no idea how to use a forum or even what Pokemon glitching even was, and, for some reason, found myself coming to this site every day. I remember learning about how you could fly off the coast of Cinnabar Island to find MissingNo., and then promptly telling my friends at elementary school about it in class. People thought I was crazy.
As the years passed, I found myself become more interested in programming, reverse-engineering, and hacking/glitching because of this site. I remember the summer of 2007, where I'd come on here once every hour, respond to every possible thread, and then go outside. At some point I became a Local Mod and chose, out of all things, to moderate the Introductions board. Not my smartest move. I never really understood glitching as much as I should have (though I'm sure I could learn), but the community kept me coming back.
Now I'm sitting here 13 years later. In those 13 years, I graduated college, high school, middle school, AND elementary school. I got my first job at the age of 16, and now have my first full-time job at the age of 23. I moved from living in my parents' house to living in my own place. I started off playing the GameCube when I first got here–now I'm playing a Switch. During the time I've been on this site, five Pokemon generations were released. I've even had the chance to meet one of our members who happened to live closeby. There's no real point to this post, but I'm just reflecting on the fact that I have literally grown up here. Out of every website I've ever been on (YouTube included), there's none I've visited for longer than GC, and that's nuts.
I'm sure not everyone will have the same lengthy story as I will, but I'm still curious to hear your stories. How has your life changed from when you joined GCL until now? How many years has it been–how has your life evolved? We only interact through the medium of forums and Discord, so it's easy to forget that, beyond all this, we all have lives of our own. It's likely been a while for a lot of you–I'm interested to hear your stories.