Well, fellow DVers, I've been here for exactly one year now. I joined right about this time on the 16th of March, 2007, and had my first lucid dream that very night. This past year has probably been one of the best I've had in some time, just because of you folks here. I don't know what I'd do without having Dream Views to come to at the end of a long, stressful day, as sad as that may sound. The community here is just beyond compare; all you guys and gals are great. I'm proud to know you all, even only in an online setting.
I've met a ton of really cool people here in the last year, many of whom I have a lot in common with, some of whom I have nothing at all in common with, but really get along well with despite (or maybe because of) this. I've been able to open up a bit and sort of define my own personality, something which I wasn't able to do as a kid. I was home-schooled, and didn't (and still don't, honestly) get out much. It's been really great to not have to fight to fit in, as is the case on certain other message boards. Here on DV I was immediately accepted as one of the community, no questions asked. Well, except for the IRC initiation conducted by Artelis and MoT...
I just want to thank each and every one of you, especially the staff and those of you who have helped me through a couple rough patches here and there. Thank you for simply being here. DV is a website I don't have to feel geeky or guilty for being a part of, a website where dreams do come true, if only in lucid dreams. I don't contribute a lot to the dreaming sections of the forum, but I hope to change that soon. Maybe I'll even get up the motivation to start myself back up a dream journal.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to apologize to all the (mostly) innocent and undeserving newbies I hazed in chat in my last year of being here, if I haven't already. And there's one other person I want to apologize to: GH. I believe I said a few things I didn't think through first, and shouldn't really have said, to you and about you. I most certainly spoke too soon, and only hope you can forgive my harsh words. You do still have my respect.
On a lighter note, I can't wait to get started writing for the DV Newsletter, hope I can do the Lounge justice. Thanks for taking the time to stop in an read this, y'all, and thanks for a great year! To many more! :cheers: