This past year or so has been pretty wild for me. Within the past year I flew my long distance girlfriend of two years out to me, we were baptized together into the Orthodox Christian Church, we got married, we have a baby on the way, and I've been working towards a career that is very intensive and stressful that will be able to provide a very comfortable living for our family one day instead of living in squalor. And all of this during the Covid and BLM chimp out no less. I noticed a distinct shift in the "personality" of Poal, or I guess maybe it's just the people who have always been here and I didn't notice? I don't know. But the more I used it the more I found interesting, insightful, and funny content, interesting people to talk to, and I found more engaging discussions compared to Voat where discussion 90% of the time was just a long string racial slurs. Poal hasn't been that experience for me and I like it. It feels more like a bomb shelter from all the crazy shit. I can come here and actually learn about things, get the gears turning, read some actual news and some research from other curious minds, have a few laughs. It's nice to have that when your own personal life is crazy and stressful. I just come in, throw my baggage down and sit on one of the couches with a beer, listen to what the guys are talking about and get caught up to speed. And watch the people screeching at @AOU with happy merchant stickers. It's been a nice outlet so far. So thanks guys and I hope it continues to develop and grow as a community, and solidify itself as it's own unique personality of people. And each person contributes to making that a reality. Thank you