I can't believe this day has come. This is the hardest article I've ever had to write . . . because I know it's going to be my last one.
Yep, it's true. I, Kimker, am officially announcing my Whyville retirement.
I prefer to think of it as "retiring" rather than "quitting" because, let's be honest here, I really don't want to leave this place for good. Heck, I wouldn't be leaving at all, except for the fact that my real life has gotten so busy that I just don't have time for Whyville anymore. I haven't even checked out a vast majority of the latest updates. I hate to admit it, but I just can't keep up with this place anymore.
I think the biggest reason I've stayed on for so long (I started when I was 12, and I'm now 16) was because I had so many obligations to it. Y-mail Helper, founder/editor/publisher of Magic Monthly Magazine, founder/first in command of WOURPA . . . I had responsibilities. I had duties. The time eventually came when I logged on Whyville because I had to, not because I wanted to.
This is so unbelievably sad to me that words can't possibly express it . . . I remember a time where I was once so addicted to this place that I would freak out if I didn't log on one day; and now, with school, homework, track practice, and everything else, I consider myself lucky if I'm able to get on once a week.
I'm also sad because Whyville's done so much for me . . . the Whyville Times has given me a chance to express my passion for writing (although now I have my school's newspaper to do that), running Magic Monthly allowed me to be a total Harry Potter nerd without being made fun of, being a Y-mail Helper has let me help others, designing face parts has given me a chance to test my artistic boundaries, earning command of Damdas100's army has taught me leadership skills, joining the (no longer existent) Whyville Pirates and their anti-senate movement has given me quite a bit of insight on politics . . . and not to mention my friends in the Why House who pelted those two bullies in my seventh grade class with mudballs and yucks, piling on top of me yelling "DEFEND KIMKER!" . . . ah, so many good memories . . .
Heehee . . . Right now I'm imagining going back in time and telling my 12 or 13 year old self that I might never see my animated gold medal . . . oh lord, would I be kicking my butt . . .
*Ahem*, anyway . . . I finally decided to stop being in denial and just face the fact that I've outgrown Whyville -- or more likely, Whyville has outgrown me. But of course, I couldn't simply stop logging on. I had things to take care of.
I y-mailed ScyllaCat and asked him to strip me of my Y-mail Helper privileges.
I y-mailed Sims2girl and gave her all the information she needs to run MMM, continuing where I've left off with it.
I y-mailed Blink178, who was previously second in command of WOURPA, and let him know that I was honoring him the same way Damdas100 honored me so long ago.
I deleted pretty much all of the face parts I've designed, and gave pretty much every face part I owned to Grandma.
I decided that my backup accounts -- Kimker0, Kimker1, Kimker2, and Kimker3 -- would become Bluebies (unlike my main account, they don't have lifetime Why-Passes, so their face parts are going to expire), and I would blank their City Records. After all, the only reason I made them was for the extra City Record space (MARS: Multiple Account Records System -- try it), which I now obviously no longer need.
I also decided that it would be very difficult to find a way to evenly distribute all of my clams to all of my friends, so I gave some to Sims2girl to help her pay any future MMM authors, and left the rest alone.
Speaking of clams . . . I never did reach my goal of one million, did I? But then again, there's probably a lot of Whyville goals I made for myself that I'll never reach now . . .
But yeah, once I got all my obligations out of the way, I was free . . . now, if you're my friend, don't cry -- and if you're my enemy, don't celebrate -- because it's likely I will come back and visit this place again. It'll be a very rare event, yes . . . and it'll probably be only during the summertime, MAYBE some weekends . . . but there's a 90% chance that sometime, eventually, occasionally, I will be back. And just like the good ol' days before high school, it'll be because I just felt like it, not because I had some business to take care of. (In other words, don't ask for any of my accounts, money, possessions, or etc.).
Heehee . . . now I'm imagining telling my 12 or 13 year old self that the day would come where the love of my life leaving me and taking off for college would be more devastating to me than me leaving Whyville and taking off for MySpace or whatever . . . I don't think I'd even believe me . . .
Farewell my friends . . . this is Kimker, founder and former editor/publisher of Magic Monthly Magazine, founder and former first in command of Whyville's Official United Rebel Pet's Army, former Y-mail Helper, former Whyville Pirate, former face part designer, inventor of the Multiple Account Records System, forever Times Writer, and forever the universe's number one Harry James Potter fanatic, signing off . . . maybe for good this time . . .
