My fellow Whyvillians,
I am not quite sure how to start this and I don't really know where to go from here, but I know one thing is for certain. This is it.
I used to log onto Whyville several times a day. It was my escape from the reality I didn't want to face. But, I have to face it now.
I have problems, everyone does. My life is nowhere near perfect and as much as it hurts to say, Whyville is no longer a part of my imperfect life. You could say Whyville saved me, but that would be an understatement, because it was so much more than that. The people I met and the things I experienced on Whyville will forever be with me.
I never thought that something as simple as a website could have such an impact one one's life. But, Whyville has made me who I am today. It saved my life. There were times when I wanted to die. But, the only thing that kept me going was knowing that there were people who cared about me online. On this little virtual world called Whyville.
I've drifted away from Whyville for a while now. I log on every so often. Maybe once or twice a month. That is nowhere near the ten or fifteen times I used to log on two years ago. Nowhere near the hours upon hours I spent chatting it up with my Whyville friends.
I'm getting older now and with that comes new things. Reality is setting in and it has taken its toll on me. I'd have to say I realized that I no longer needed Whyville when I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It was then that I knew I could no longer run from the problems that were eating me up. I couldn't just log onto to this fantasy world where everything was perfect. I couldn't run from myself.
I'll never forget the days of saving up clams. I used to save for months and then get a loan to buy a scion. I could never keep up on the payments though. I always lost the car by the end of the month. But that's okay. There are more important things.
If anything, Whyville prepared me for what I needed to know about life. The way that everything was so perfectly thought out. The way it was like the real world. Set up to be something great.
What always kept me coming back was the Times. All week I would be excited to read my favorite stories. And then I would camp out at my computer all day on Sunday. Refreshing the page every two seconds until it was updated. Looking back, I kind of wonder what was so exciting about that. I guess when you're younger everything seems so much more positive. What I would give to go back to
those days.
I feel like Whyville deserves a formal goodbye after all we've been through together. This will be my last time attempting to write for the Times. Today is my last day of Whyville. The last day I will see that oh so familiar log in page. The last time I will see that colorful homepage. The last y-mails I will send.
I wish I could say I will miss Whyville and the people I met on here, but then I would be lying. It's not Whyville I will miss; it's those days I spent on it. The countless afternoons I spent typing in random article numbers in the Times. It's the old "me" I miss. Sadly, those days are gone now. And Whyville is too.
So please hear me out on this one Whyville. And listen real closely, because I will only say this once.
Goodbye.
-Miley7311
