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Fuck this meme.

For cereal.

Getting me all choked up and reminiscing.

Nevermind, it's actually kind of nice to reminisce and think of the several reasons that I truly love Destructoid. The biggest reason that I love Destructoid actually hearkens back to the very first time I had ever heard of the minuscule video game blog.

I was browsing the massive plethora of video game blogs that I ran through (I had yet to decide on one), when a story caught my eye on Kotaku. This happened long, long ago. The story was linked to a blog here on Destructoid, in which one of the sites community members, a contest winner, had made a video of himself unboxing his contest prize. The prize happened to be a gigantic box of crap, containing loose demo discs, controllers, and just an overall mix of everything that could possibly fit in the box.

"This is amazing," I thought to myself. "What kind of professional blog would send their contest winners this crap?" That's when I decided to look around further. I went to the home page and just wandered for hours. Looking through the stories, realizing more and more as I read, that this place was different. There was an air of obscurity about Destructoid that could not be ignored. From then on, I visited Destructoid practically every day. Slowly but surely stopping my visitation of other various gaming blogs, yet still retaining my identification as a lurker of Destructoid. Afraid to register in fear of being ridiculed for perhaps not being. . . strange enough for the crowd. Or knowledgeable enough for the group of hardcore gamers whose knowledge seemed to all but obliterate my own.

Then one day, in the year 2006, I decided to register. I signed up, and of course felt no different. Except that I now had a name. I had a face (so to speak). I had a voice.

I began to comment on a few stories here and there. Only those that I knew my voice wouldn't sound like that of a moronic 12-year old wishing to seem smarter. But as I continued browsing, my love for the community grew. Everyone on Destructoid had the stench of un-professionalism about them, and it was gorgeous. Destructoid was the only serious video game blog on the internet, that didn't take itself seriously.

Early on in my Destructoid career, I felt that I gained a slight reputation for being a contest winner. Generally winning those that required photoshop work. Of course, since I rarely said anything, I couldn't have possibly gained a reputation, but I was proud of myself nonetheless.

After a while, I stopped commenting. Never posted on the forums. Never did anything. Until a few months ago. When I just decided that I would completely fit in here. That I was born to be here. That on the internet, this place wasn't just some obscure video game blog that attracted the knowledgeable, and the badass. That it was THE video game blog.

Sorry about not having pictures or anything, and make such a long blog. But I felt this meme required, and inspired, more spoken word, than anything. *tear*
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