What I am Thankful for About Home
by Kassadee Marie, HSM team writer
Home offers a lot to people. You can play hundreds of games, collect rewards of all types, decorate your personal estates, design clothing fashions for yourself, and socialize with a wide variety of people. I enjoy the games, appreciate the rewards, love to decorate my personal spaces and designs fashions for myself. But mostly, I appreciate Home for the social aspects it provides. With all the fun I have on Home doing these various things, I enjoy making new friends and visiting with old friends the most. I’ve met people from all over the United States and even a few people from other countries, such as Canada, Australia, India, and the United Kingdom.
But what I’m most thankful for about Home is finding my best friend.
He and I have been through a lot together. We originally met in the summer of 2010, when we were both members of the same club, Hamster Freedom. I used to call him my late-night buddy because we always seemed to be the last two standing after everyone else went to bed. We roamed the spaces of Home and laughed and played together for hours on end. We learned and practiced glitches, fought off trolls and pervs, and played all kinds of games, some of which we made up. We used to buy matching outfits and pretend we were other people, such as hippies or spies. I fondly remember us standing in Central Plaza in our “I am not a Spy” shirts pretending to take pictures of people for our “files” — which we denied having, of course. He was there for me and stood up for me when I was asked to leave the club due to a misunderstanding that I was too young, shy, and embarrassed to deal with.
There was a point in time where I had a crush on him, but I never told him because I was afraid that I would lose his friendship. The crush faded in time, as they do. Later, there was another point where he had developed feelings for me and told me so. By then I had seen some nasty break-ups on Home, where the additional stresses of limited communication, distance, different time zones, and lack of meeting face-to-face had destroyed relationships. I had seen how two people who loved each other became hateful enemies, and I was horrified at the idea that this would ever happen between my best friend and I. My response to him then is just as true today as it was then: I told him that I couldn’t love him any more than I did, only differently. I told him that I would cherish his friendship, but never risk losing it by changing anything between us. Being the wonderful person he is, he understood that and agreed with me.
We don’t have everything in common, of course; not even games or other interests. There are periods of time when he becomes fascinated with a game or an update to a game that I don’t play and he spends most of his online time away from Home. There are times that I’m busy with college and related activities and I can’t spend much time online at all.
No relationship is perfect, and we’ve had some rough patches in our friendship. At one point he was in Home and dating someone that I didn’t care for, and I actually ended up in an uncomfortable situation with her. I couldn’t spend time with him when they were both in Home, and they spent a lot of time together there for months. He and I saw each other rarely and only messaged each other occasionally. But I still felt the bond between us, and I was there when he decided to break up with her. I never encouraged the break up; I was just there for him to talk to, for the sake of our friendship.
Another time, he betrayed a confidence of mine, and this nearly destroyed our friendship. I was very hurt when he told me what he had done, but I understood the pressure he felt from another person who was a mutual friend of ours at that time. It took months for me to feel as comfortable with him as I had, but we were two people who knew each other well and had known each other for years at that point. I’m far from a perfect person and have made many mistakes; it would be monstrous of me to expect another person to be perfect and not to make mistakes, also.
Our friendship has transcended the boundaries of Home. We’ve also played other online games with each other besides those on Home, from Uno to our current favorite, Final Fantasy XIV. We’re Facebook friends, of course and have texted each other many times throughout the years. We’ve met members of each other’s family on Home, also. Interestingly, both of us have cousins who have spent time in Home.
We both have suffered losses of close family members and we were there for each other. His loss was first, and when he told me that people were not understanding his prolonged and deep grief, I spoke to him from my heart, not knowing that several years later I would be the grieving person myself. I told him that I believe that grief and love do not have to have limits of magnitude or time. What we feel is what we feel; feeling aren’t right or wrong – they just are. When my loss came this last summer, I knew he was someone who would understand. He didn’t have to say much; he just needed to be there.
We’ve even made up our own words upon occasion.
Dittodat, 86!
December 24th, 2013 by Kassadee Marie | 5 comments
Home is endlessly entertaining to this California girl. Kassadee has been in Home for about four years, and loves almost everything about it (with a few notable exceptions). She spends way too much money there, and perhaps too much time... Someday she will travel the world and write about the people she meets and the places she sees.
Share
| Tweet |
Awesome article. Nothing else to say.
Very good read Kass, and that I feel is the greatest thing we get from Home, our friends that are so dear to us or even some body we find romance with as I have. These are the things that when Home does shut down either tomorrow or a century from now, are the real and tangible.
I was very lucky to meet someone on home, and not only do we get on very well, I could actually drive to met her quicker than it takes home to load up, she lives that close. But homes not the only place I’ve met people, I’ve enjoyed meeting people on other formats and games
I have to admit, I got a little emotional after reading that. I never expected Home to have such a positive impact on my life, but it really has. Sure, it wasn’t great all the time, but I always had my best friend there when I needed her. 99, being your best friend these past three years has been a pleasure. I’m looking forward to many more. Dittodat!
Im so thankful I got to know such sweet, adorkable people such as yourself!!! Love you!