Written & Posted 11/30/25

As I’ve been on this new path for a month, it keeps popping into my mind how naive, childish, and just plain stupid I’ve been over the past decade. Well, I am still those things, but at least now I’m moving forward. Previously those thoughts of wasted time and my past failures would bog me down in a sunk cost fantasy sort of way. Now it’s just proof that my current trajectory is the right one. Dwelling on the past quite literally does nothing for me, other than to serve as a cautionary lesson.

The primary source of the feelings mentioned above is the fact that all of the positive actions I’ve been taking this past month could’ve been taken a decade ago. The seemingly small hurdle of just going out to an event alone to meet total strangers was actually more like an insurmountable obstacle for me. It’s hard for me to even explain, especially now with my shifted mindset, because now it just feels silly. But I had formed this perception of myself as a socially inept loser, there were times I struggled to even go out in public to get groceries. I’d built up so much shame onto myself and it was suffocating me.

Now I realize I was suffocating myself. Sure, I’m not perfect and have plenty of faults. But I’m not a bad person and I aim to treat people well. I’m learning to be content and confident in who I am. Confidence is a strong word, and I wouldn’t say I’m really there yet but it’s also a scale and I’m beginning to slide the other way.

A big part of it has been the release of Riftbound (explained more in The Wrong Type of Snow post). It’s given me an outlet to go out and interact socially with people of similar interests while we’re all learning a new game together. I’ve gone to several events myself and now with my brother as well and actually put myself out there to the owner of the LGS (local game store) I’ve been frequenting to help organize and run their Riftbound events. None of their store regulars or staff were seemingly interested in running it so I took the leap and put myself forward.

So, I’m the new event runner for Riftbound and Discord mod for the Riftbound section of their Discord server. From what I can tell so far it just primary involves basic admin work of setting up events online, running them in person, handing out promos, and engaging with the community. All things you may be surprised to read I have some small experience with for another game, Animal Crossing. The video game Animal Crossing is one of my top 3 all time favorite gaming series and holds a special place in my heart.

It’ll come up again when I eventually write about my freshman year of high school. But long story short for now, I was involved with the site Animal Crossing Community, not in any kind of official capacity, but we did run events, giveaways, and prizes. Sporadically I’ve also been involved with clans and guilds across other games that fill a similar role of fostering a positive engaging community. Obviously not claiming that any of that is a 1-1 but I have positive memories of those times and it’s cool that I’m getting to engage in a similar fashion now but in person as an adult.

I’m sure many people (not that many will) who read this will find much I’m writing quite simple and not much worth writing about. I’d generally agree, I feel I’m learning and maturing pretty darn late and trying to explain why or how is difficult, especially when there is a lot I’m trying to change and I notice changes manifesting even over small things. So, here’s a short anecdote of one of those small changes of thought process that’ll maybe give a clearer example of my temperament shift.

One of my pet peeves is over “courteous” drivers on the road. Specifically imagine you are coming to a 4-way intersection with 4 stop signs. You approach your stop sign and see another car approaching from your left, noting that they arrived at their stop first. Now you stop, expecting them to take their rightful turn and go forward, only for them to sit there and flash their lights for you to go instead. This small of feigned kindness from the other person used to make me irrationally angry, thinking now maybe it ties in to my proclivity for generally following the rules as written. If everyone just followed the rules and took their turns appropriately, traffic and driving in general would be better. But for some reason that simply cannot happen, so we enter into these weird stale mates at stop signs. So now, instead of getting the slightest bit made, it just amuses me as a little mini-game. If I obviously got there second, I just sit there as long as they want, I don’t signal for them to go, and if they signal me, I take my turn without a wave. I finally understand that getting upset like this is pointless, a few extra seconds at a stop sign isn’t going to change my life, unless I let it.

Not sure if that did anything for explaining my internal thoughts but in the moment, it felt like a good example lol. Anyway, again, thank you for making this far anybody who did!

Be well, be intentional, and make something,

Uncle Dump