The Long and Winding Road

This is a post that was inspired by two things. First, a video that was sent to me by my boyfriend. Secondly, a post over at HoTs & DoTs.

You may be wondering what those two things have in common, but the way I see it, they’re both about the road that you took to get somewhere. In the case of the LoadingReadyRun video, it’s a comedy about how it’s not just “one thing” that makes something what it is, and in the case of the HoTs & DoTs post, it’s about how something little, like logging on at juuust the right time, can change your WoW life.

I look back at my first WoW character ever and see a lot of weird little things that all conspired together that brought me to where I am now. Rolling on the server I rolled on, cause a friend had characters there and decided we’d prefer to start out on that carebear RP server than on his other server, a PvP one. Rolling hunter cause a friend told me to. Learning herbalism because I wanted to pick a Peacebloom. Learning alchemy because seriously, as if I would have any other profession. The fact that I then had both herbalism and alchemy? Beginner’s luck.

There are a lot of what-ifs, too. What if the WoW free trial hadn’t worked on my Linux install? I was using Linux fulltime when I installed it. If it hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t have even tried to make it work. My personal reasons for using Linux were– are— more important than a game.

What if the friend that got the boyfriend and I into WoW had us roll Horde on his PvP server instead? Would I still be inventing stories and backstories for my characters the way I do now that I’m spoiled with the RP server mindset?

What if the person who told me to roll a hunter, told me to roll something else?

What if I’d never stumbled across the WoWWiki “fansites” page that introduced me to the (at that time, much smaller) WoW blogosphere?

And then what if I’d never decided to bite the bullet and make my own little blog? I put off doing it for a long time, you know. “Why use up valuable internet space that I can’t even put to good use? I’m no BRK,” was my reasoning. And yet for some reason I finally did it anyway.

My latest little “what if” comes in the form of joining my new guild. All I did for that was go to the official forums (where I never go) for my realm, found the first “Recruiting!” thread that I could find, went to the website, liked what I saw, and applied. A few weeks later I was in Ulduar, and now not only is my main in ToC25 but my alt is, as well (though I admit she is probably not geared for it, but it’s fun anyway.) You gotta understand, prior to joining that guild I’d been puttering around in PuGs and Naxx10. I figured I’d seen all the WotLK content I’d ever see. But the WoW gods apparently disagreed with me.

Where am I going with this? Truthfully at this point I think I’m just rambling; I’m trying to write a book, see, one that’s been stewing in my brain for thirteen years and I’m just now trying to get serious about it, and because I’ve been writing that all day, my brain is fried. x_x

BUT! The moral of the story, maybe, is don’t be afraid to take risks, like I did when I joined my new guild. It might be really good, or it might be really bad, but you’ll never know if you don’t try.

The other moral of the story is that alchemy is clearly the superior profession because our flasks last twice as long. I miss four hour flasks though. /cry

19 thoughts on “The Long and Winding Road”

  1. See I like your moral of your post better. You were the one who took a chance/risk to get where you are and succeed.

    Meanwhile I feel that my story ending up in a very very successful raiding guild (when all the others on the scene at the time have fallen to pieces) just makes me feel lucky. Like I’ve dodged a bullet.

    What’s meant to be is meant to be. That’s what I choose to believe 🙂

  2. Are you doing your epic gem transmutations? They cover hunter’s repair bill pretty well. Also, 150~200g via 1 button click is nothing to sneeze at!

    Kohaku

  3. I envy you Pike. I seriously do.
    Like you I’ve been taking chances and trying to find a good guild for a long time but so far I haven’t found that sweet spot yet. Last guild I was in got into a bad merger and I’ve been more or less left behind.

    Anyway, keep on trucking! Fun to know someone got lucky out there.

  4. Please tell me you have music on your site else I currently have the WEIRDEST virus ever…

    But yeah, first a comment on Nano. I picked it up, I really want to write something, I always have, but I really don’t know what. I thought perhaps if I just write the first thing that comes into my head, but, nothing’s there, just a word, and I don’t know what to do with that word.

    And on guild’s I know exactly what you mean, no guild on my current server appeals to me and I massively don’t want to leave my bf and all of my alts, I make a lot of money with my alts! I’m tired of being alone and need to find a server and a guild which will suit me AND take me in.

    Also, on blogging, I’m not sure I’ll ever get to where you are 🙂 I’ll keep on writing because I need to, for my creative side, but I don’t think I’ll get anymore than my current 4 subscribers. Not a case of “I’m no BRK” more a case of, well, there are too many these days. I’m subscribed to 72 feeds, I cba to read them all everyday, and that’s just a handful.

  5. @ Jaedia – No, I’m not supposed to have music on my site, nor am I supposed to have all this weird redirect stuff going on that appears to be going on… I’m trying to fix it >_<

  6. If you load the source for the main page and scroll all the way down to the bottom there is line of script that is very obscure. I would bet that is the lines that are causing the problems.

  7. I know I saw your Twitter 🙁
    Hopefully what Kayl said might fix it 😮
    On a side note I opened your site as I entered Terrokar Forest, thought the bleep of my Virus Scanner thinking it found a Virus was actually the last rare I need for Bloody Rare..
    Also, thanks for pointing towards Nano, giving me some ideas for a novel 😀

  8. On my Mac, when I open a new tab, it brings up my Top Sites, one of which is yours. WHen I mouseover your site, the tagline was some random ad. But when I clicked the link from your Twitter, it took me right here, no problems. I went back to my Tops Sites, and now it correctly shows your website and tagline. So I think, at least for me, you’ve fixed the problem…? Hopefully 😀

    Good moral, especially since it also applies toward RL.

    P.S. I just noticed you have 2 smiley faces at the bottom of your website pages. Brings a smile to my own face 🙂

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