April 1st was supposed to be my one year anniversary on CivitAI.
I'll be honest, I had something planned for it. A proper celebration post, a reflection on the year, maybe something a little self-congratulatory about making it twelve months without completely losing the plot. Instead, the platform closes its doors to Australia on March 16, and I'll fall sixteen days short of a milestone I didn't expect to care about as much as I do.
So consider this the celebration I didn't get to have.
A year ago I showed up here not entirely sure what I was doing or whether anyone would care. Turns out some of you did, and that changed everything about how I approached this. What started as quiet experimentation became late nights, new characters, rabbit holes I never expected to fall into, and a community that made showing up feel worthwhile every single week.
I won't reach the finish line. But I got close enough to look back and mean it when I say thank you.
And I want to mean it specifically.
Curette -- Some people correct you. Some people guide you. Every now and then, if you are lucky, someone does both without ever making you feel small for needing it. You were that person for me.
Raconteur222 -- There is a particular kind of friendship that lives entirely in the well-timed reply, the perfectly aimed piece of nonsense, the banter that somehow makes the whole room lighter. You have that gift. Don't waste it.
Drei2763878 -- You carry things quietly and without complaint, and you do it with more grace than most people manage on their best day. I noticed. I always noticed.
BethanySusan -- You handed me a character and trusted me to treat her well. I hope I did. BettySue found her way into more of my work than I ever expected, and every time she did, I thought of the generosity behind that.
_abby -- Some presences don't need to be loud to be felt. Yours was soft spoken and beautiful and it made the room quieter in the best possible way. Thank you for being part of this.
nemo474 -- Chaos is underrated as a creative force. You understood that before I did. Half my best ideas started as something you said that I probably shouldn't have taken seriously. I took all of them seriously. No regrets.
Silvana_ -- There are people who add noise and people who add light. You were always the second kind, and this place was brighter for it.
Valerie_4659 -- You arrived late in the year and made yourself at home like you'd always been here. That's a rare quality. Thank you for the warmth you brought with you.
Uberocarina -- You have a way of saying exactly the right thing at exactly the right moment, then backing it up with work that makes you want to try harder. That combination is rarer than you think.
Pacifica -- Fellow southerner, fellow outlier, fellow person who showed up and kept showing up. Your work earned every bit of the recognition it got. Down under solidarity, always. And now we bow out of this together, as friends. There are worse ways to go.
Pijjiot -- You gave me the kind of help that doesn't announce itself. Quiet, practical, effective. My work improved and a lot of that improvement has your fingerprints on it.
RustyFidgetSpinner -- The elves were always going to be legendary. But what I'll remember most is that you showed up during the dry spells, when the work wasn't flowing and the motivation wasn't either. That's when it counted most.
Bridgewalker -- You built things so others could create things. That's a particular kind of generosity that doesn't always get named properly. Consider it named.
Razane -- Not every form of support is loud. Yours never was, and it never needed to be. Thank you for being consistently, quietly there.
And to everyone who followed, liked, commented, or just stopped by to see what I was making -- thank you. You were the reason the year was worth having.
April 1st will come and go without me here to mark it. But this community gave me something real, and sixteen days isn't enough to take that away.
The old grey wolf disappears into the dark forest.
It was a good year.