Chatterbox: Down to Earth

-pt. 1: introduction and explanation-

Hey friends! Leafy here. Gosh, I haven't been around in a while have I? I've been fairly inactive this whole spring and summer and then I have actually been on an intentional, albeit unannounced hiatus for a couple months. But I figured it's time I came back! 

I haven't been around much for several reasons--I feel like I don't belong here as much anymore, not like I did when I was 10-13ish. There are several reasons why; most of my old friends are long gone (*cries*); I think I've grown out of the subject matter that is allowed on the CB a bit; I've found other things to take up my time, and more real life friends; and I honestly feel like the CB isn't very creative now and hasn't been for a long time.

Now of course I've stopped engaging with the community so much, so I'm not catching any creativity that goes around, but there's not really much to engage with. Most of what goes on here now, I feel like, is random chatting, and of course there's nothing wrong with that but the basis of this site is for readers of Cricket mag--writers, readers, imagination honestly and when I was younger I found this place to be such a nurturing hub of creativity + inspiration and I just don't get those vibes from here anymore.

Which isn't exactly fair of me because during when there was a lot of creativity around I didn't participate much, just rode along in the wake of amazing people like Abigail, Bluebird, September, Micearenice, Booksy Owly, and more and hoped that someday I could be as good at what I did--art, storywriting, poetry--as they were. But eventually I realized I needed to take a break from the CB and figure out and grow my own skills and creativity, so that's kind of what I was doing this spring and summer. But with that said, I'm back! I want to try to bring some creative spirit back here, just by personally being more active and trying to participate in this community more. Because I love this place, and it's been a saving grace for me over the years. And I want to help make sure that the same creative, welcoming atmosphere that this forum has can be available for other kids too, before I poof out of here entirely at some point.

~~~

-pt. 2: things I did while inactive/gone, in no particular order-

-Spent a lot of time on the NaNoWriMo forums, which made me appreciate how slow + safe the CB is, but it also made me appreciate Nano's huge community and support network and instant chat thing. (I also picked up some chat speak slang so be warned I may throw in an uwu or bro or bc/nvm/idk from time to time) 

-FaceTimed Leeli

-Started 10th grade at a new school (it's all online currently, which stinks, but overall it's going okay)

-Realized that my hair is naturally curly/wavy and does ringlets when I leave it alone

-Became pretty good friends with + got a crush on a guy I know, and just a couple days ago we were trying to make plans to hang out and play video games but then some stuff happened and I found out he has a girlfriend that I didn't know about and that he didn't have a couple months ago and said girlfriend doesn't want us to hang out, so um, he kind of ditched me? It's really a pretty stupid situation and I'm kind of hurt but we're sort of working through it I guess 

-Decided I 100% support Pride simply because I believe everyone deserves to live in a world where they can feel safe + respected + loved no matter what my own personal standpoint may be, if I even have one at all, and I'm really sorry that I used to act so nasty about this subject

-Improved my art some; my skills are still nowhere near I'd like them to be but I've definitely made some progress!

-Read a lot of books, if anyone wants recommendations let me know!

-Went out of my comfort zone a lot of times

-Learned guitar, somewhat

-Became more confident in myself and my appearance--I have bad days, like everyone, but overall a generally more positive outlook than I used to 

-Expanded my music taste a LOT

-Snapped in Covid times and bleached a lot of my hair and dyed it bright green 

~~~

-pt. 3: how are you guys?-

What's new with everyone? What have you all been up to, anything you've done recently that you're proud of? How have you been dealing with Coronavirus and all? If you don't know me, introduce yourself, I'd love to try to get to know you. And if you don't know me, I'm Leafy, I've been a CBer for almost 5 years now, and um...yeah that's about it haha.

I think this basically sums up my post so yeah, helloooo I'm back! Love y'all <333