Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

So college for me was an amazing experience. I was on my own schedule, I had an apartment all to myself for the first few months before getting a roommate (and he was pretty chill and kept to himself most of the time)

I was probably in the best shape of my life from skateboarding and biking everywhere instead of driving, my DDR addiction was in full effect from having a set up at the apartment and a barcade that had a machine with 50 cent plays. I was very active in the Yu-gi-oh! Community in the area and often went and judged/volunteered at regional tournaments or pre-release events for some extra pocket money.

Life was honestly pretty amazing at that point, but after I graduated it began to fall apart. I wasn’t able to get a job in my field and continue supporting myself where i was staying so after a few months of sending out résumé’s and demo reels to various companies i had to throw in the towel and move back in with my parents…

It was a pretty crushing blow to my confidence because now I was stuck back at home with a degree that cost me over $60,000 that i was now responsible for paying back and the only work i was able to scrounge up at that time was a management position at the McDonald’s i worked at while i was in high school

Needless to say i was at a pretty low point in my life, but i did manage to find a bit of happiness when i had met my girlfriend a few months after moving back in with my parents. So there was at least a little bit of light in my life

So I’ve never kept a journal before, and with the choices I’ve made and situation I’ve placed myself into…I figure now’s as good a time as any to try it out.

Where to even begin… I guess with my name is a good way to get things started, nothing wrong with an introduction.

My name is Tim, short for Timothy, and I’m 36 years old. Kinda crazy to come back here of all places, but now that I’m older I’m beginning to find comfort in things that remind me of the past and of a much easier and leisurely time of my life.

If you noticed on my profile, this account was created back in 2003 which means this is more than likely my very first account that I had created when I first learned about Gaia online. I was either 15 or 16 that year depending on if it was before or after my birthday lol, hard to remember exactly, but regardless I was still in high school and living it up with my small friend circle and enjoying life. I had a part time job at McDonald’s, which fueled my newly acquired ability to drive, and a hobby for Yu-Gi-Oh and addiction to Dance Dance Revolution. Funny enough, I actually found myself getting back into Dance Dance Revolution about 3 years ago during the pandemic, I bought a pretty nice dance pad for my PC, and built a base and bar for it in order to play Stepmania (or ITG for anyone familiar with the game lol) guess you could consider this my “mid-life” crisis, since before then I hadn’t touched anything dance game related since 2008 when I had graduated college and I kinda just lost all motivation to play anymore. Same goes for Yu-Gi-Oh! I didn’t have the money to keep picking up new sets by that time, so I sold off my collection and haven’t really touched the game since. There was a brief period when I played master duel but that got really old really fast, so sadly Yu-Gi-Oh! Just isn’t for me anymore.

Well, that’s an okay introduction for me at the moment. Next post I may open up a bit more and give a little run down on how life has been since I graduated college