*looks at post count* Welp, time to make this now!

I knew I wanted to do a special post for my 20,000th post (because, 20,000 is a lot ), but I'm not sure what to post about...

I guess I could talk about things that have happened in the time I've been posting all those posts.

I've been posting here since January 15th, 2013 (the day after Cap created this forum), so that's over 3 years of posts. There were many others from the previous Pit Stop as well, so I'm sure that number is a bit bigger, but still.

It's weird, it seems like I've been coming here forever, and yet, it's hasn't actually been that long. I feel like you all are friends I've known for ages, but, in reality, I've only gotten to know most of you for around 5 years (heck, not even that long for some of you), back when I first joined Bulbagarden in April 2011, and boy, that feels like it was a billion years ago!

Either way, no matter how long it's been, you're all my best friends, and I love you all! I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have you guys around.

Looking back further, it hasn't even been that long since I've officially been on the internet. When I was a kid, I would go to my local library to play on the computer, but I rarely went to any websites, except for the Pokémon website, PBS Kids, Kids WB, stuff like that. Most of the time, if I was on a computer back then, I'd be playing educational/kids games they had on there. I remember them well... They had Arthur (the aardvark), Little Critter (another book character), and Magic Schoolbus, and they were fun to me back then. Thinking about them fills me with nostalgia still.

Then came the year we finally got our first computer. I believe it was 2010, and one of our relatives had given my aunt (who was living with us at the time) his old laptop. We were overjoyed! Soon after, we got internet set up (it was dial-up and extremely slow...), and we had the world wide web in our house for the first time. When I was 16, I made my first email account (the one I still use to this day), and that's when I feel like I officially joined the internet.

At first, I didn't do much because, well, this was a new experience for me and I had no idea what to do! I wasn't sure of what websites to go to or anything. My aunt had joined Facebook, so I thought that'd be a good place to start, and it was...I guess.

Facebook was an interesting experience for me... I got to know a few people over there and connect with some family members, some old friends, and some new friends. One of those friends...well, I've mentioned her before, and I hate to bring up that mistake again...

Eventually, Facebook was mainly just a place that I started playing stupid games like Farmville and other time wasters... And after...that mistake, I decided to move on and deleted my account.

During all that time on, and after leaving, Facebook, I finally started learning more about the internet, and about some cool looking websites. Since I was into Pokémon, I'd started looking around for Pokémon stuff online, and that led me to Psypokes and their good walkthrough of different Pokémon games, and their Psydex. When the new games were coming out (Black and White), that's one of the main sites I went to for info on those games and the new Pokémon that came with them.

My search for more info on the new Pokémon games led me to other sites, like Serebii and, you guessed it, Bulbagarden.

April 2011, a new kid in town looking for info on Pokémon games. Never did I expect to end up all the way here waaaaaaaay back then. Back then, I was still under the watchful eyes of my aunt, who wanted to make sure I stayed safe and didn't talk to strangers, didn't stay online too long so my eyes weren't strained, and stuff like that (and also to make sure that I...didn't watch porn......yeah, I was a pervert even back then... ). So yeah, I didn't really explore much of Bulba except for the news section.

Later that year, in November, my aunt finally left home, but by this point, I had my own laptop...except that I broke that one (my mom had gotten it for my birthday that year) and had to make do with another laptop that my aunt had gotten...which was the one that would overheat like crazy and gave me heck for so long...

But anyway, after she had left, and I had a way to surf the web on my own, I was able to spend more time online and explore more. Thus, I discovered some of the other areas of Bulbagarden, like The War Room, Shipping discussions, and, most importantly, Fun and Games where I met the original Pit Stop gang.

Ah yeah, those were the days. Back when we were getting along so well that we had to have our own little group to hang out in. So much fun! True, we got shut down, but we came back stronger than ever, and...I know it was a horrible tragedy to lose the original, but it was good that it happened, because we have this now.

And now, after being on this website for over 3 years, I've finally reached the milestone of 20,000 posts. A lot of things have happened in just those 3 years: New people came, old members left (and one came back after a short time ), we've laughed, cried, had fights, then forgave, fallen in love, broken up...we've lived.

We lived. Here. This is our home, our hangout, our clubhouse, local burger joint, whatever you want to call it. It's...home. We've created bonds that can't be broken by time or distance. We're more than just friends, we're family...a crazy, mixed up family sometimes, but still!

I said this already, but I'll say it again: I love you all! You are all special to me, and I don't want anything to happen to this bond we have.

...I know I've done some stupid things over the years, and I still do stupid things, but I hope that, no matter what happens, even if things get crazy, we can fix things and still have this bond at the end of the day. I don't want to ever lose you guys. I've lost touch with so many people I've called friends in my past that I can't even call them my friends anymore... I never want to have that happen again.

...Anyway, I think I've rambled on long enough. I hope I got everything out that I was wanting to say...I always have a tough time finding the right words to say to speak what's on my mind, and I just end up spitting out a bunch of garbage and still haven't gotten everything off of my mind...

So, to wrap this up, thank you all for being my friends, and for helping this place to be so awesome! Here's to the future! May we have many, many more years of happiness and fun to share!

Stay cool!