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"I've only lived 18 years, but I don't want to change any of them. They're all part of my life, even the failures." -Makise Kurisu
God damn I miss Final Fantasy XIV guild. I miss them a whole fucking lot. With the recent announcement of the latest expansion Shadow Bringers I've gotten to reminiscing about my time in Eorzea and the people that I spent it with. So in no particular order let's reminisce together about the lovable group of colorful characters that I called guildmates.
Haylee Heavensong: I know I said no particular order, but they were the first one to invite me to the guild in the first place. Now they're unique because it's one character controlled by a husband and wife. Never did figure out which one contacted me. I had posted somewhere that I was looking for a group of people to play with the the party finder for the games first dungeon was not helping. They sent me a message, got a few other members to help clear the dungeon, and sent me a friend request afterwards along with a invite to the in-game chat room they shared with other English speaking guilds (ended up on a Japanese server by accident). Wanna say within two weeks I asked to join the guild and was met with open arms. If they hadn't responded to my random post than I doubt I would've stuck with the game. Thanks for showing me the ropes Haylees you don't know how grateful I am. Cap'ir Ke: This dude was a fucking trip and during the time he was playing FFXIV (hasn't been on in years unfortunately) was one of my best friends online. He was always up for helping me clear dungeons and trials. Showed me how a lot of systems worked and how to change my UI to my liking. The biggest thing he ever did though was after I had finished the main story. Everyone was gearing up to fight the new raid that had just come out and while I had it unlocked I didn't have strong enough gear to do it. He just gave me handcrafted gear that he made, for free. Told everyone to give him 15 minutes while he did. Now while a seemingly insignificant thing in the grand scheme it meant the world to me cause it showed that these people do care and wanted me to have fun with them. I miss this guy a lot and still a little sad whenever I see that his character is still not active in my friends list. Lee Shusheng: If there was ever a party happening or their wasn't a party happening you could bet your ass the Lee Shusheng was at the center of it. This was another one of my best friends in game (that ended up switching servers after an extended period away). The first time I met Lee was at a bar in game that I had a quest at. He was there dancing on the table, in pink underwear and nothing else, telling the guild leader that this was his power move and would win the hearts of everyone in the guild. He then proceeded to chase (think it was tag) the leader around the area screaming that he will show his true strength as everyone laughed their asses off in chat. Lee is the purest definition of a wild card +4. He always showed up to raids and dungeons in the most bizarre outfits, usually pants-less, and was the type of random humor that was actually funny. The day I saw him in the bar was my first full day as a member of the guild and I new I made the right choice. Lee was right their with Cap'ir for a lot of dungeon clears for me and had some insane knowledge on bosses. We timed out in a dungeon (we cleared it already) cause Lee decided that before we left we should have a victory dance party. Dungeons give you 90 minutes to clear them. That dance party lasted for 50 minutes. Valia Rosa: The original leader of Harmonium and the quintessential mother of the group. Had as many alts as she was allowed to have. All had varying levels, races, and personalities. RPed every chance she had to and got right down to brass tax when it came to clearing the high end raids. I owe a lot to her. Good clan mates are one thing and are incredibly important, but if you have a shit leader than they can only do so much. Val was the absolute best and was so forgiving of my sporadic playtime and pleads for help. Part of me think it was because I was the youngest member at the time (17 when I joined) and she had a kid of her own she tried to get to play a bunch. It was most likely cause she's just a super awesome person. It was sad to see her transfer to another server but I'm sure she's happy to have other RPers around her. Sara Goldmoon: The current leader of Harmonium and the best damn White Mage you'll ever find. She was another one that I felt always had an eye on me. She was always willing to jump into dungeons with me and explain shit when Cap and Lee were off dancing in the corner. A wealth of knowledge and a master at the art of leveling EVERY CLASS in the game to the max. She took over the reigns as leaders seamlessly. While there was a leader in-between them I think that has to do with how close she was to Val (they got married in game after all). Just all around a super nice person and one the best members of the guild. Virgo Memelan: The wise and weird uncle of the group. Lee showed up to raids in weird gear Virgo would show up in the basic form of classes and still be on the top players. Another player willing to jump into a dungeon to help out any of the new players (usually because he's run the endgame activities into the ground) . Usually the one to come up with unique races to have with other guilds through dungeons. Virgo was the grand master Summoner I tried to learn from and was one of the reasons I dropped Black Mage for it in the first place. Tiritiri Minimini: Name says it all folks. She is just a ball of energy and someone I could easily visualize jumping up and down in their seat as they typed stuff. First to say hello as I log in and the first to say goodbye when I leave. It's pretty hard to stay in a bad mood once Tiri starts talking. Catalina Feloneous and Nekomata Tejas: Each have hit the alt character limit on our server and each use all of them (usually with in the same day) and all of Cat's characters' names are within one letter of each other. They're the only two people I know that work on a ranch specifically a horse ranch if I remember correctly. Another wife and husband duo respectively and two of the sweetest people you'll meet. I'm not a hundred percent on the being in southern US, but they have the hospitality to make me think so. Every time they log on there's some kind of story about the ranch and they usually swap out playing and working with one another. They're the relationship goals of the FC. Zeno, Leeby, Stormis, Hex, Rumina, and everyone else: I could go on forever about the people in my guild, but seeing how it's 1 am and I have class in 8 hours I should stop. I miss all of these guys so much. It's been like not seeing really close friends for months. Unfortunately due to monetary constraints I haven't been able to jump on in about half a year, but I'm hoping with me possibly switching departments at work and summer slowing coming up that'll I'll have the time and money to do so. I could also just make this as part of my birthday gift to myself, but that'll depend on the paychecks this month.
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For this one I decided to put down the first paragraph of my opening. I went with the anecdote route because the day I talk about is a perfect example of the Three Good Things process. This was a day that a lot of stuff clicked for me and I was able to let go of stress.
It’s a Sunday night and I’m hanging out with my friends in my basement as usual. For some reason my friend Katie’s house was brought up and I’m going off on a tangent about the island that separates her family room from her small dinning room. I was talking about how it doesn’t make any sense because it completely closes off the room, it makes it near impossible to pull the chair at the dinning room table out far enough to be comfortable, and just went on and on. Mid rant my friend Eric jokingly says that I should just be an architect and I stopped mid-sentence. It was a like sitcom where one character says something that makes another character stop cold and everything they were wondering about and stressing over just clicked and they knew what to do next. Because of that one joke I am now changing my career path. Admittedly I've already covered this one to a certain extent in my blog about family, but I'll do my best to not repeat things. That being said let's dive into the second part of my eight part series, this one being about Friendship.
Friendship didn't always come easy for me. I've always had friends but it wasn't till around 7th grade that I had a "friend group". Before that I had one or two really close friends that I would hangout with every weekend and try to meet up with after school. Once 7th grade hit my... I don't want to say former best friend cause he and I are still close, but we haven't been as close as we used to ever since he had to go out of town for college, anyway my other best friend Steve introduced me to who would become my first/only girlfriend and my ex. Than we made friends with the guy that stole Steve's lunchbox every lunch, not hyperbole it was in fact every lunch, Barr (he's also named Nick so we call him by his last name. Than came in Mike, than the two Ryan's, than Josh. By freshman year I had a group of pretty good people to hangout with. Than by the end of the first year of college, Josh had become an intolerable jackass, Mike showed his true colors as a manipulative asshole, Hom (one of the Ryan's) and I just drifted apart, and after a year of dating my ex and I broke up. During that first year of college however I met a few new friends as well. After awkwardly walking up to the three of the them while they were playing Yu-Gi-Oh (never too old for a card game especially since Yu-Gi-Oh nowadays take a freaking math degree to understand). Alex, Peter, and Eric were soon integrated with my core friend group. From there came Ellie and my soon to be current best friend and Eric's girlfriend Katie. Now we cut to about two years later and well... Peter and Ellie walked away from the group because (and this is an unfortunate theme throughout the past few years) people couldn't be adults and talk their shit out. Alex revealed himself to be a very toxic person to be around and we said our goodbyes to him last winter. Now though, we have Eric's brother EJ, Emily, someone Barr, Travers (second Ryan), and myself went to high school with and Jyn (another Katie and Travers' girlfriend) in the group. So the question is why would I go through this long backstory for this blog. Why divulge what some could say has been a mixed bag of luck in keeping friends and picking friends. Well to obviously illustrate some kind of point. Honestly that should be pretty obvious. Friendship to me is one of the most important things in the world. The support of a friend can mean so much more than a family member's. There is no obligation any friend has to help you through your rough times, to pick you up when you fall. Good friends will be around when you get back up on your feet, those you can call family will help you stand back up. Take Katie for instance. The night of my narrative essay I was a wreck. She was the first person I told and she was the one that checked on me the most afterwards. Steve was there for me when my ex and I broke up. Eric has seen through the masks I wear more than anyone else. Barr is always the first to motivate me to try something new. Emily is the first to point out bullshit and put an end to it. EJ and Jyn are amazing example of what it means to be an 'adult' while still being a kid at heart. Travers has had my back several times over the years. Other than my parents I couldn't even begin to make similar praises about my family, let alone my extended family. I couldn't say similar things about any of the people I've worked with over the past few years or the people I've gamed with online. Friendship can be the strongest and most rewarding thing in the world, but as I've shown it can also be the most fragile thing to hold on to. I've had friends come and go for a multitude of reasons some good and some not so good. It's the one that have stuck around through my worst times and continue to root for me for my best times are the one that are wroth keeping, They are worth the trouble. They are worth the headaches. They are worth the heartaches. They are worth everything they've put me through and they are worth everything I've put them through. Alright. So THIS derailed a little bit. The point is that friends will always be there, when you're doubting yourself even when they are struggling themselves. If you can find a good group, real fucking good group of people hold onto them. Work through the shit that tries to pull you apart and come out stronger because of it. |
Nick D'AversaWriter, outstandingly good at mouthing along to songs, level 9 Dragonborn Blood Hunter, and just trying to figure out what in the hell I'm doing. Archives
February 2019
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