User blog:Lalainee/My Wikiversary? Huh. That was quick.

Yup, you read correctly. I, Lalainee, known by some as Lal, or maybe Lala, or whatever, have been a user on this wiki for exactly a year! Technically, I'm writing this post on March 19th, but the wiki is several hours ahead, so it's basically March 20th. I'm not really sure what you're supposed to do during these things, so I guess I'll just wing it.

For starters, I'd been a longtime fan of the wiki before I actually joined under the alias Lalainee. Lalainee, by the way, was invented when I sort of corrupted my actual name, Layla. I think I may have unconsciously named it after the actress Lalaine, who was in Lizzie McGuire, not that anyone remembers or cares about that show. Anyway, the first story I read was Total Drama Paradise, which I thought was very interesting and cool since I hadn't really read Total Drama fanfiction before. Next, I stumbled upon Total Drama: Boney Island, which I found more interesting since the characters had been drawn by the author. I'd read it every week, and read the comments other people would write about it, but for some reason, I never bothered to actually make an account so I could comment for myself. The author whose stories I became utterly dedicated to from the start was Sprinklemist, and I looked forward to reading his stories every single week. The first story I ever commented on was Total Drama Tropics, followed shortly by Total Drama Time Travel. What I loved about his stories (FYI, I wasn't sure whether he was a he or she, but I did in fact find out later) was that the chapters were consistantly updated every week. I felt secure in the fact that every Monday or Friday, I had my daily fix of Sprink competition fic on its way. I can't remember that many times when he's flaked out on updating his stories, but I digress. I could rave about Sprink, but this is my wikiversary. So let's shift the focus back on me.

I was originally going to write my own story and draw my own characters, but that never happened. I did in fact draw some girls that would have been contestants in this story, but I don't think they looked all that great. You can see two of them here! However, once I found out that I can't actually draw guys, my dreams of writing a fanfic were demolished. I considered making an only-girls competition, but I didn't think it would work. Oh, well! I'm perfectly satisfied being a blogger and commentator.

Some highlights of my lovely first year have been...

1. Talking about music with Sprink! I think we each had a lot to offer each other in terms of different songs and artists, and I thoroughly enjoyed our chats. Because of him, I now know and love Metric, Sia, and Lykke Li. :D

2. Being able to have two chatacters of mine in a Sprink story! Flip-Flop, who I think was fairly popular during Total Drama: Super Powered, was thought of back when I want a story about teenagers with powers. Her name was Mimiko in my version, but other than that, Sprink portayed her almost exactly the way I would have. The other character has yet to be revealed, but you'll be seeing her soon. She's going to be a contestant in Total Drama Athletics, and she is my prize for winning the Total Drama Wilderness fantasy league (also a highlight).

3. Friendships! I've made several friends with other users in these past 12 months, even though I wasn't particularly social at the beginning. Other than Sprinklemist, I've made friends with Gideon, who warmly welcomed me to the wiki and into the world of his wonderful, eloquently written stories, Crystal, who has been ever so sweet to me, and asked me for advice on her stories, TDIwriter, whose stories have a witty sense of humor that incorporate pop culture, which I love, who I also believe is the wikian who is closest in age to me (I think we're both turning 17 in April?). That was becoming a runon sentence, so I'll briefly pause. -pause- Okay. TAU, who I haven't really talked to a lot until recently, but who I would consider to be a pretty cool and nice guy who I'd like to talk to more. Nalyd, who's stories, especially Total Drama All-Stars, kept me excited week after week, and lastly, I think I'd consider Bocaj to be a friend I made. He and I had a very pleasant and interesting conversation that could have potentially been controversial, but I'll get to that next. I've made lots of other acquaintances, but I think the people I've mentioned stand out as friends. Don't feel bad if I didn't mention you.

4. The aforementioned conversation about religion Bocaj and I had on one of his blog posts. Though we are basically opposites, with myself being a complete skeptic and he being fully religious, we were able to have a nice conversation about Atheism, Christianity, and homophobia. All three are touchy subjects, but he discussed his opinions with me very intelligently, and I'm thankful that we were able to share that conversation. Bocaj has been missing recently, but I hope he returns to the wiki someday.

5. My blogs! I loved making blogs all throughout my first year, since it was one of the few things I actually did. It gave me a chance to get other peoples' opinions on different things, like sad movies, Survivor, wiki stories, etc. My most commented blog of the year got 57 comments, which isn't really that much, but I appreciated every comment. Thanks for commenting if you did!

6. Most importantly, I enjoyed so many stories throughout these past 365 days. Some of these included Total Drama Tropics, Total Drama Time Travel, Total Drama All-Stars, Return to Total Drama Island, Return to Total Drama Action, Courtney and the Violin of Despair, Total Drama: Los Angeles, Total Drama Wilderness, Total Drama: The All-Stars, Total Drama Super Powered, Total Drama Infinity, Endurance, Total Drama Celebrities, etc etc etc. I haven't commented on some of these, but I have in fact read them. If your story is mildly popular, chances are that I have in fact read it, or at least part of it.

So, I guess that's it. It's been a pretty good year for little old me, and I look forward to the next one. In celebration of my wikiversary, I'll answer any question any of you might have for me, though I can't imagine what you'd want to know. I'll also be re-editing my userpage, which could seriously use an update. Thank you for reading this, and thank you all for making my first year on the wiki a special one. This wiki has brought sunshine into my life, and it's given me an element of... positivity, that I appreciate from the bottom of my heart. I love being a member of the Total Drama Island Fanfiction Wiki, and I plan to keep being the "moderately-active-user-chick-who-doesn't-contribute-much-to-the-wiki" that you all know and (hopefully) love. XD