True story time:
It was exactly one year ago that I joined this awesome forum. I've been reading Cracked since at least 2008 on a somehow regular basis, but never felt compelled to make an account until I decided I wanted to write an article for the site. Yeah, life got in the way and that didn't happen. Then I stumbled upon a tumblr account that posted some of the funniest comments on Cracked and that's when I decided to pay attention, and when I noticed there was an actual community there. I was basically a lurker, mostly because I don't usually read the articles on the day they come out, but instead I binge on them during the weekend. I would occasionally make a comment which would get a few votes and/or replies, but I always read the comments and that's how I first learned about many of you.
So when "the incident" happened and there was a real threat of getting rid of that feature, I saw Tesseracts' call to arms on the top comments and made an account, if only to keep reading your jokes. It wasn't after a couple of weeks that I came back and realized the focus of the forum had shifted, but people were still having fun and creating a real community away from, let's call it the toxic intervention of some mods on a power trip. This was around the time I had just gotten out of the hospital and I couldn't do much else but sit all day and fool around on the internet, so I decided to finally participate in a more interactive way and getting to really know each and everyone of you; and I gotta say, I've been part of forums and other communities before, but I had never felt so free to be myself without being judged. That, or the people on those earlier sites just never were interesting and/or consistent enough for me to make and effort or care about building any sort of bond. Another thing I learned here which I've rgrown quite fond of was role playing games, which has taught me to share that creative side of me which I often shy away from, so that has been a big change for me.
All in all, I don't know if TCS has changed me that much, I still have lots of issues to deal with. If anything, I have been able to be more open about who I really am and always have been, so saying that's a change sounds a bit paradoxical. Still, I guess the best thing I can say is that this is a wonderful place full with awesome people of all kinds and one of the best hidden places on the internet. Here I feel safe to be silly, but also I can discuss about serious stuff with very smart people who have all sorts of points of view without anyone being rude, which is sadly not too common. But most importantly, during this year I got to know plenty of people I can confidently call my friends now, and that's much more than I could've ever asked for.
Edit: I corrected a few typos, edited some things that made no sense and polished a few sentences. I wrote this in kind of a hurry the first time around.