A Piece Of My Heart

Review a Newbie

So, I've been feeling quite nostalgic today. With WDC celebrating its 18th birthday, my own age and the amount of time I've spent with this site over the years has really started to hit home. I really grew into adulthood with WDC, which is so crazy to think about. And with the release of the Achievement MBs, I started to think about my journey with this site and how far I've come since I first began wandering it's halls as a Newbie. On top of that, I've spent a fair bit of time reviewing newbies today, and it always amazes me how many people exist on this site, most of whom you've never heard of, but who are talented writers nonetheless.

So I wanted to do a little thing today to remember my own days as a newbie and thank some of the people who helped me when I was first starting out.

Like I've said before, I still have my entire WDC portfolio from before I reverted to a free account saved on my computer, so I'm actually able to go back and relive those memories as a newbie. Most interesting is my old blog. Dang... a lot of growth happened there. (Edited to say: I just spend three hours re-reading three years worth of entries there... and wow, I had referred to Elle - on hiatus as a newbie blogger! ) I found an entry from November of 2011, five months after I opened my account, thanking several of the first people I connected with on this site, and I'd like to share their names here again. Even though we've gone our separate ways, I thank you for welcoming me into this site and making it my second home.

Bookiemonster - the first to introduce me to Scroll and a super kind pen pal.
Emailman - reviewer extraordinaire! Beyond helpful and downright funny!
~SilverMoonNoel~ - lovely friend who used to send me 12 emails overnight
thelostlover - very welcoming and fun to be around, not to mention a dedicated writer!

And the ones who've closed their accounts:
dreaming-muse - dedicated founder of the first group I joined on WDC and a generous soul
jannie - a Goddess. 'Nuff said
williampadgett - the first person to get me interested in blogging

So here's my plea for you. Take the time to review a newbie today and welcome them to our home. It made a huge difference for me knowing that someone was out there. The community is what made me become addicted to WDC. Special thank you as well to then Mods, ember_rain and ~A.J. Lyle~ for my very first reviews.