My Christmas gift to you is 3 years on the forums. Yaaaaaay
In all my time on the forums, I regret who I was as a person for 2 of them. But I don't regret this past year, which was also the source of a majority of my rep. Halfway through my second year on the forums, I almost quit completely if I hadn't been a part of the Capinima Discord (the animation team that made one wallpaper and disbanded afterwards). The thing is, I was kind of an idiot before Capinima, and a bit before I took a few-month long break. I'm not entirely sure what made me happier with myself that came from Capinima and the forums, but at one point I just drifted back to both. I think I realized that the people on the forums are actually really cool and talented. And even after a long hiatus, they don't question you when you return, they're just happy to talk to you. It's like the comfortable middle-ground between friendly and understanding. If that makes sense.
Anyway, even if I don't make animations (or, finish them at least), I think it's really cool that the forums are still that comfortable middle-ground, and I was able to make a Discord with @-StickyMations- where we can actually do just that. Obviously we're pretty toxic in there, and it makes me pull my hair out sometimes, but it's comfortable. It's comfortable.
This isn't really a Minecraft animation forum is it? It's like a karaoke bar that we all visit regularly, making friends and forming outside groups that still share that bar in common. Sometimes people go up on stage and sing- doesn't have to be good but people will support them anyways and have a good laugh. Eventually the bar becomes a sort of afterthought, and the friendships themselves take the spotlight, on the karaoke stage.
Tldr: Thanks for this good year, to me and to you all. Here's to a few more.