Today I Retire! Yup! You read that right. If you didn't read the 29th newsletter, you probably missed the news. I originally intended to draft an extensive retirement post to cover as much information as possible, including parts of my own experience in GC, starting with how I even stumbled into the old, old, old forums. However, I soon realized that would've been overkill and most likely annoying for any who would have had to read through walls of text. Instead, I will give you a summarized version of the story, not going into detail. I will save that for some other time. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx As many of you are well aware, I've been drifting away from my duties in recent months to focus more on my career and studies (Architecture). The gist of it is the same: it's a time-consuming endeavour and this final year is the most important out of all of them. I'm not only gonna be studying, but I'm also going to be working to apply what I've learned and earn the special credits required for me to actually graduate (otherwise I'll be stuck in college/university for another year). That's one of the real life reasons as to why I'm retiring. The second one is that I have a slight curve to my spine due to a fall I took a couple years ago, and I am going to spend a lot of time swimming and doing lightweight physical activity in the afternoons to get rid of it and straighten it up the way it should be. I don't want to have to invest in surgery due to neglect in the next decade. It's something that is easy to fix and I have no excuse. That said, I can't exactly fulfill my role to my fullest extent as staff member if I am going to be juggling studies and health with administrative duties for an online community. Regardless of this, though, I don't worry. The reason I don't worry (and the main reason why I'm retiring) is that I feel I've completed my role in Galaxy Citizen as a member of staff. Although I originally joined to write Human lore (and I did but then retconned it in favor of a better version that is yet to be released), I quickly found myself working alongside /profile/6-wowgain/?do=hovercard" data-mentionid="6" href="/profile/6-wowgain/" style="">@WowGain, my fellow Monitor at the time, to try and fix the mess the recent retirement-wave had left beind. In that time, I focused on restructuring the Race Application System into what is now, while WowGain took care of the Technology & Augmentation Application System and graded about 30 apps a day (the guy's nuts). In order to facilitate communications, we moved on to skype and soon enough found our little private chat expanding in order to welcome Mega, Bulphrog, Matt, SpartanBobby, eventually Kaktiss, then AuroraDestiny, then eventually SirLagsalot, etc. We basically created what is now the main means of communication between staff members (and a real life-saver): the Staff Chat. It was Spartan's idea that we moved from skype to Discord after the former began to break. Anyway, I went on a tangent there. I've done everything I wanted to do and waaaay more than I thought I would in my time here in GC. I won't go on to list everything I've done, because a lot of it I may have had major influence over but I firmly consider to be team effort. I don't fancy taking credit for anything I haven't done all by myself and I am a tad uncomfortable bragging about the things I've done. All in all, I've done everything within my grasp and power to help maintain this community, be it foreign relations or internal affairs, on and off the record; be it by helping lore writers and potential RPers getting started or by coming up with rules and guidelines to keep things running smoothly. I've made my fair share of mistakes, but none I refuse to admit myself responsible for. I've made a lot of friends - more than I can keep track of. The only enemies I have (that I'm aware of) are some unidentified internet folk back in Boundstar, to whom I've never spoken (I learned of their hatred for me through a third party who felt like letting me know.), though I wouldn't be surprised if their hatred was born that one time I revealed the reason I chose GC over Boundstar was that GC's forums didn't give me a nasty migraine, whereas Boundstar's did. That's about it, really - and that's actually the reason I ended up here instead. Fun times. Anyway, back to the main train of thought: I'm happy. I gave some thought to the possibility of retiring from Galaxy Citizen's Staff Team about a month ago and realized, after having a conversation with old folk such as /profile/452-jin-the-blue/?do=hovercard" data-mentionid="452" href="/profile/452-jin-the-blue/" style="">@Jin The Blue, who has been a great friend and ever-present source of advice in times of uncertainty, I decided it was about the right time for me to retire. I wanted to step down in good terms, with everything stable and happy. I wanted to make sure Galaxy Citizen's staff could go on without me and, with the recent hires and a little discipline in some aspects, it is safe to say the only worry I have anymore is that they'll do too good of a job and get themselves in trouble in the process. So, I'm happy. I'm satisfied and I'm pleased with the way my time here has been spent. I learned a lot of things and cemented some others I already knew. It has been a learning experience as much as it has been a life experience, having dealt with so many situations in the frontline, middleline and rear. I am complete, is what I'm trying to say. And that's probably it, isn't it? My story as Drakkar, the earl grey addict, fanatic of Space Operas who came out of nowhere; as the guy who once had one hell of a sugar high and came up with "The Whoooooooooooooooooole Black" antagonist and some upcoming surprise in the works, among many other crazy weird things I best reserve for other folk to tell the story of - my story as this man who came to Galaxy Citizen seeking to fill a void and a half after departing from another community for another platform, moving away from a heartbreak after the loss of a dear friend whose name he never got, has come a long way and pushing it any further would only make it overstay its welcome. In order to wrap this up, I'd like to thank everyone who ever exchanged even the smallest of conversations with me. I want to express my gratitude and respect for everyone I had the pleasure of working with in my time as staff. I don't want to post individual stuff for each one of you since I am only human and bound to forget a name or two. I perhaps will do so privately, as time goes by. Otherwise, I am certain we've known each other well enough so that you will know the sincerity of it all even if it's just anonymously on this post. With this said, I'd like to officially declare myself retired and grateful. I'll be seeing you! (Well? What were you expecting? It's known I'm a fan of Harlock) P.D: Stand by for a reply to follow this post with some points clarifying what my retirement will entail and what it means. I'll start off by saying I'm still going to be around and continue role-playing. The rest of it I will type in a moment.
So here are the points I didn't cover but will list independently since the post itself was getting too long for my taste: I will still be around for a while longer! I have role-play that isn't over yet as High Admiral. Once I've dealt with all my loose ends, you can expect me to take a lengthy break and go off the radar for a bit - but I may return to activity as a user from time to time. Don't worry about that. While I'm still around, I will be working on those releases of Human, Spacer and.... Spaceship lore I promised. The latter has been taken over by /profile/210-snakeybob/?do=hovercard" data-mentionid="210" href="/profile/210-snakeybob/" id="ips_uid_8744_4" style="">@Snakeybob, /profile/4-privatenomad/?do=hovercard" data-mentionid="4" href="/profile/4-privatenomad/" style="">@PrivateNomad, /profile/32-khaos/?do=hovercard" data-mentionid="32" href="/profile/32-khaos/" style="">@Khaos and /profile/45-kappa/?do=hovercard" data-mentionid="45" href="/profile/45-kappa/" style="">@Kappa while I focus on the two former. Don't fret! I will hop on Discord's voice chat to talk if you guys have any questions you want to ask and such. Today is also my birthday!
And so another makes his way to the retirement home on the hill, ready to get his ass handed to him in checkers over a cool glass of lemonade. I still remember the day we sat in the teamspeak, getting you fitted for your monitor sash, and showing you the ropes. You were so eager to work, and help, and make this community the best place it could be. Looking back I don't think either of us truly knew just how big a task you were made to handle. When I returned after my first retirement, to find GC's staff in shambles, you weren't the only one trying to keep things together, but you certainly put in the dedication, and passion. When you were bumped to admin, you had moments of stress, and we didn't always agree, but you were always doing your best, and giving it your all. I hope you check in every now and then, if only to see what has become of the seeds you took so long to plant.
I may not have been around here for long, but as someone who has just recently graduated from Uni, I can completely sympathize with your decision. Good luck, Drakky-boy!
Thank you for all your contributions to our community. I wish you well in your future endeavors. And happy birthday!
Youve done great work for us through thick and thin, even if I argued with you about everytihng most of the way
May the crime-fighting duo of loose-cannon cops never die The late nights splitting up 50 apps between us and staging the monitor revolution
