2017 - A Retrospect

CrimsonShark I'll be honest here; I'm not a big fan of writing down a retrospective look on years. The last two times I did that, I wound up being pessimistic to the point of being an emo edgelord :P. I'll be honest, while not exactly the greatest year in my life, 2017 has wound up being one of the better years I've experienced, or at least during my time here in London.

I's no surprise I hated 2016 with a passion. I failed college that year, my relationship with some people started to drop, my creativity became depraved and other stuff you should be familiar thanks to my 2016 rant post. 2017 was more pleasant, so that was a good relief to me.

To be honest, I've grown to appreciate educational facilities in a social viewpoint. I personally find it difficult to commute and maintain social relationships with people outside of where I study, which is problematic. However, the college I study does provide a Mentor's Area, in which I go too whenever I'm in recess. The teachers there are normally nice and most of the students are sociable, alongside a neat environment. Its also here where I can get invitations to school trips with a certain number of students who attend the mentor's area. So yeah, I've had a good area of space to work on and I feel safe, alongside people I could interact with.

My studies are fairly decent. My class is small and I study multimedia, currently planning a project of my own. Its a tough job, but I am glad the class is NOT one of those that happens to feature a bunch of obnoxious jerks. Most of my teachers are pretty good and understand me rather well, although I do have a general problem of procrastination at home, which I really do need to work on.

In spite of what I've been trying to do best, I very heavily struggle at home and my relationship with my younger brother. While I am organised at college and I am observant outside, I am very dysfunctional when it comes to being at home. I guess my reason is due to not really having an independent room of my own (I share it with my younger brother). Outside of watching a few TV shows and before bedtime (Which is around 2-3 AM), me and my younger brother hardly interact, seeing as he normally is outside for most of the day. My parents and my older brother do try to cover up for me, which I am thankful for, but something tells me its not exactly enough.

My younger brother almost committed suicide on July 20th. It happened coincidentally at my older brother's graduation date and Chester Bennington's suicide, which is depressing and disturbing in its own right. My younger brother tried to ingest a couple of pills during the night outside my home and was admitted to, hospital soon after. Its no surprise he goes through depression, which is similar to mine, except he tends to be more vocally volatile and has a sharp temper. Me and my younger brother still get along after all this, he even called me after hearing of Chester's suicide, to which I replied I knew beforehand. My older brother was extremely frustrated by this ordeal and doesn't talk to my younger brother as much.

I also got robbed by a trio of materialistic dirtbags on 1st September afternoon. They took my phone and debit card and they walked off, whereas I ran to my house to get my debit card cancelled. Thanks to those three, my confidence going outside has been greatly ruined and my parents are trying to work me out in restoring it and to better my independence. It gets even worse when one of the three people even goes to the same college as I do. One of the teachers at the mentor's area knows him and is aware of the event as I told her the first day in. From what I observe, he points at me whenever he sets his sights om me, chanting "LOOK AT THIS GUY!" with a slight laugh, which irritates me heavily. I do my best to obviously avoid him. But overall, I should be glad that I have friends and seniors who are willing to support and provide for me when needed.

The following three are the biggest negative highlights, but hopefully, there's not much else to say. Although I do wish to maintain contact with my younger brother and to build my social and independent confidence, which is a pretty long step ahead.

I have to be honest, I felt more creative than I did in 2016. I got to watch a few films in cinema and I even started to resume watching films, TV shows and anime back at home as well. I've even started to play video games again, thanks to playing some fighting games and Super Mario Odyssey time and time again. I have a lot of games to play, mostly on the PS4 but hopefully I'll hit my benchmarks :).

By biggest achievement by far is getting myself involved in advocating for Childhood Cancer Awareness and Funding, which is something I never thought at all. The special mention in getting me involved was a six-year old named Katherine Marie King. Katherine was diagnosed with DIPG and passed in 2016. Reading about it from her mother's Instagram page did upset me, but it also crafted a new perspective in the value of life, although it didn't get me fully involved. Ellie Walton, who was diagnosed with Glioblastoma and passed in January 2017 at age 4 would be the child that would provide the final push and the overall motivation to get me invested, and for that, I have to posthumously thank her and Katherine. I should also note it all started on Instagram, which has become my most visited social network for some time now, alongside this site in some way. Lastly, the community which advocates for Childhood Cancer Awareness is among the closest, most supportive and overall best I've seen in a really long time, and I am glad to be part of it :).

Finally, I need to direct my attention to this site as well. Sure there have been technical mishaps, but this has proven to be a great social hub for me. In fact, I find a lot of people here to be more genuine and sociable than I thought. I recall TwilightKitsune, a good friend of mine, that the members here normally treat each other as family here. For the most part, she is right (There are exceptions, but most of you may know those members). I'd not be lying if I said this is one of the best communities I've stumbled across, alongside the Childhood Cancer community, which is saying a lot. There's diversity and a range of unique interests and personalities, a prime factor in why this site has even persevered for quite some time.

Shoutouts should be an obvious trope here. Sure its cliche, but then again, you'd better credit people, you know. And also, be social :P.

ModernSpongeBobSucks: Its safe to assume that Kitsada is one of (if not, THE) the most supportive and genuine users I have interacted and known for quite some time. We share common interests like anime and video games and he's always one that tries to acknowledge different users' strengths and interests, which is pretty commendable. I also have to hand in that he tries to help out whenever he can, and that's one thing I can't take back. I also have to hand it that he is among the site's most profilic members in terms of posts, images, research, etc.

Aragorn98: Alongside EliHbk, he one of those users I've spoken to the most and credits me as his best friend. Aragorn is a very genuine and interesting user, always providing me with some weird and interesting every time we talk and is quite helpful in asking about stuff. He asks rather questionable stuff about me, to which I reply with presentable answer and is respectful of people's beliefs.

EliHbk: He considers me to be his best friend and I've always given him a series of quips and good conversations to keep each other interested. Its also surprising to know he's a Republican and he has nothing wrong in me being a Muslim. In addition, he does ask for some good advice from me when needed, and I in turn give him just that. While he does claim that his content isn't that good, I assure him that he'll improve eventually.

TwilightKitsune: Twilight is arguably the first user whom tried to socialize with me, and I'm glad she did. She's very genuine, honest and nice and much of her content is also commendable. Her posts are very well-presented and are good critical representation about what she dislikes, something which I would like to see more often in other users. Lastly, she is a social determinator for her friends, which is admirable in its own right.

DCfnaf: One of the site's best entertainment critics. He is surprisingly mature and responsible for his age and he has some of the most well-represented and researched posts the site has to offer, alongside some adequate in-depth lists about games, films and music. He is also quite approachable and his comments are very well-handled.

EvilAngel: Yes, he retired in 2016, but I have to mention him. He is the King of Remixes, because TBH, he has the best remixes I have ever seen on this website. Not to mention his taste in music is very relatable to mine. Lastly, his content and dedication to the site was what ultimately got me to join this site to begin with.

Metal_Treasure: Although our conversations have been rather recent, its safe to assume that he is very approachable and genuine. While we may have different musical approaches and decisions, I respect Metal_Treasure very highly due to his commendable content and the amount of effort he puts into his thoughts on what interests him.

htoutlaws2012: While being the second-best remix maker on this site, he is arguable the most dedicated and (content-wise) profitable member in the site. Its also nice to see that he attempts to highlight different users' potentials, similar to Kitsada.

There's a lot of other users too whom I would like to thank my support on, but that would take forever, but then again.

My overall thoughts: 2017 was a rather decent year for me (Excluding some obvious things that I've mentioned), though there's still a lot to go through for me. Then again, there is a lot of expectation going on for 2018, so I'm going to have to keep my levels balanced. Gotta search for a university, improve some social areas, get creative, let's see what turns out.

As always, if you want to talk about what sort of interests I partake in feel free to give me a message. In addition, it you're interested in Pediatric Cancer, I've linked my Instagram page via my profile page. I follow some Cancer Awareness pages to look out to, just to let you know.

Thanks for reading. Hello 2018 :P.

Comments

What a great post to wrap up 2017 and usher in 2018. And biggest of thanks for mentioning me, my friend. It truly makes my heart glimmer with joy that you appreciate my contributions to this site. - visitor (12/31/2017)

Thanks for the shoutout ♡!

I'm so sorry to hear your brother attempted suicide. Thank God you were able to save him. I know how it is to feel depressed and antisocial. To help him, try to be kind on a regular basis. Also do something to surprise him. Buy a box of donuts and leave them in his room with a post-it note telling him you love him (on a random occasion, not right now).

Can you send me the links for the cancer patients?

Also remember, whenever the 'LOOK AT THIS GUY' dude annoys you, remember that you are a famous blogger in this site while the only sites he goes on are hentai ones - TwilightKitsune (12/31/2017)

Thanks, let's see what 2018 has in store. - visitor (1/1/2018)

Great post! I am so sorry to hear these things happened to you (your brother, the robbery,...) I hope 2018 will be much better for you.
And thanks for the good words about me. I truly appreciate it.
Happy New 2018 everybody! - Metal_Treasure (1/1/2018)

I'm sorry for all that happened to you this year, and I appreciate how forthcoming you are about telling us. 2017 Wasn't the best but it was a pretty good year. You're a good guy. - visitor (1/6/2018)

2017 was pretty good for me. I liked the entrainment that came out of it, the stuff that happened to me was mostly decent. I did pretty well in school, but I have done better in 2018 in school terms than 2017. I wonder if you will do a 2018 one of these and if it will be your last post on the website. - iliekpiez (10/23/2018)