✮—✮—✮ okay, so bear with me, cause this is gonna be a long project. — to get things out of the way first, I'm holding a writing contest to celebrate, as of january 12th, 2026, 6 years of my being on scratch!! I'm putting this up here because I want people to enter, and they're more likely to enter if I don't hide the contest under a ton of other text. so, here are the rules! :D - due date: february 28, 2026 - prize givers wanted and needed !! - no set theme, I only ask that your entry isn't written beforehand; e.g., a chapter of a book - be creative and have fun with it! this is a low-stakes, fun contest :D - poems and stories are allowed, no specific word max or min, but please have it fit into one project :> prize givers: - @alaska_lily77 - @emilygracefulalt - @its_aves - @ entries: - @EmilyGraceful - @Poppy_Writes - @its_aves - @felixtianyifung - @ — alright, with that out of the way, let's get into the serious part of this whole thing. six years is a long time. I've been on this platform for over half a decade now, and with the community, I too have grown and changed. Honestly, I find myself lost. I barely know who I am, I'm constantly struggling to even stay afloat in my day-to-day life, and I still feel this immense pressure to keep up my role as the stable, smart, always-okay girl everywhere. Over the years, I've had both highs and lows. I've been bullied, found friends, lost friends, been bullied again, etc. And I've been on Scratch for it all. This platform has seen me leave the pandemic, find new friends, discover my love for writing, get diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, OCD, go through depression, find my way, lose it, and search for it again. And, to a degree, Scratch has helped form who I am today. I'm going to be honest, guys, I'm struggling. I've been going through a lot mentally, and it's tough. I feel out of place here, like the second I started getting busier, people forgot me. I'm outgrowing Scratch, I've realized. It's not like I don't want to stay, but at the same time, it's hard. For one, the concepts I want to explore and write about are way too mature for this site. And I'm also outgrowing the community, in a sense. I don't want to sound superior when I say this, so bear with me, but I feel like I need to be able to have more mature and developed interactions with people, something that can't happen on Scratch. I'm close to being an adult, and now, I'm feeling like this is a community that I don't belong in. I considered leaving with this project. But, I think that I'm not ready for that. I'm definitely going to be online less, but I'll be here. I'll check in, chat, write, and everything. I'm going to be active, so y'all will have to deal with me a bit longer. This is a really bittersweet project to me. It's forced me to look back, to relive the peak of my Scratch activity, when I had tons of friends and almost-fans online. Now, I'm not too sure about who makes up my community, but that's okay. Sure, some of my friends have moved on, but I'll manage. We're all growing up, after all. To those who stayed till the end of this, I really do appreciate you caring enough. This isn't a goodbye, not yet. So I hope that you all will stay with me as we navigate this new year and look forward to what I hope to create over these next months. I love you all a lot. —Shimmy ✮—✮—✮
✮—✮—✮ photo is not mine song is money by the drums <3 ✮—✮—✮
