Finding a Home in NationStates
Part 2: To be the very best
Written by Creen Free
I'm the first one to admit that I like sleeping (and I meant I really like sleeping), but all the same I've got the unfortunate habit of putting it aside. "I don't need to sleep," I'll say "I'll stay up and finish this draft." or "I don't need sleep, I'll wake up a little earlier to watch an episode." or "I don't need sleep, I'll stay up and play just one more round."
It's a good thing to be part of a worldwide community- even if it sometimes means the spectacular music videos I send to discord go unwatched by our German members- but there are problems with it too.
The discord channel- which helped me so much to get involved in the region- is active at all times of the day. Feeling bored while taking notes in class? Load up the discord in another tab. Waiting for the bus to get back to the dorm? Open up the discord, even though your phone is at seventeen percent. It's one in the morning, you've just finished your seventeenth game of spider solitaire, and you suddenly find yourself realizing that you've got the same hobbies as your grandfather? Load up the discord to remind yourself of your youthfulness. Someone will have said something (odds are, in fact, that many people have said many things), and checking the discord has already become so habitual in my time here that I just reflexively checked it while midway through writing that last sentence.
For an easy procrastinator like me, and someone who likes to put off the biological needs of his body and do other things instead, this could be a pretty big issue. There's a reason my sister had to remind me to eat lunch when we were younger, and it's hard to look at Europeia and not be tempted to waste away- especially when it seems like everybody else is so constantly active. I know that's not the case, and that timezones and the pure number of Europeia citizens make it impossible for me to be there whenever anyone is active in the discord, but I'm tempted to try anyway.
It's an unfortunate habit of mine that when faced with an impossible task- especially an impossible task that I'm tempted to try- by first thought is to just give up. I'm not going to be as active as some people, I'm never going to have been here as long as some people, or post as often as some people, or been in as high a political office as some people- so do I just drop it altogether? Why bother doing NationStates when so few actually manage to get their resolutions published? Why be active in Europeia when there are already such well known members doing more than I ever could?
When these thoughts rear their ugly heads, I have to take a moment and remind myself just how ridiculous that line of reasoning is. All things in moderation- that's the rule I have to follow. No, I can't expect to stay up for eighty-five hours straight replying to threads and discussing the american vice-presidential debate. No, I can't expect myself to churn out another draft for another article every other day. No, I do have to admit that I probably won't win the "Last User to post here wins!" thread and that my Spam points score is a whopping one thousand five hundred and seventy three points behind the front-runner (honestly, how does Drecq do it?). My job here- and my goal here- is not to be the very best, like no one ever was. I've never been very good at pokemon games, and I suspect the WA pokemon program will be the same.
My job here is to be a part of the community. Not because I want to rule the community, or be famous in the community, or use the community to preserve my memory on the internet long after my death. My job is to be part of the community because I like the community. Because this is a healthy community. I know there's nothing better than that, and know that I shouldn't pressure myself too hard to make my legacy burn with the fire of a thousand fiery gaseous suns. That won't help Europeia, and it'll only make me more tired.
Speaking of, I'm going to bed. Because I really like sleeping.
