(Old) Hey guys. You may have seen my huge rant-thing/existential crisis and be wondering if I'm planning on leaving scratch. Well... I'm not. Yet, at least. And that's because I honestly couldn't leave if I tried. I went on a hiatus at the beginning of 2021, and I could hardly get that to last a week. I had been trying to take a break from scratch, and I still was constantly on, it just didn't look like I was active because I forced myself not to love/fave/follow anything or anyone during that "break." And I just went through a severe lack of motivation. It opened my eyes that I spend way too much time on scratch. And with the pandemic looking like it's coming to a close, all the time I've been able to spend on scratch will mostly be gone. Scratch has been my crutch during the pandemic, and I'm so glad it has been a place where I can be creative, and talk to people, and where I first picked up digital art. But if it was my crutch during the pandemic, I can't keep leaning on it afterward. Before, scratch was something I would do with my irl friends and we'd make silly projects together, and that was kinda all it was. But it's become so much more now, good and bad. Heck, I didn't even know about fame on scratch until last spring, and I've been on scratch for over 2 years. I used to be able to say that Scratch is a kid's coding website and believe that was all it was. But it's so much more than that. It's a whole community, filled with good, and yes, bad. And I used to be blind to it all. Do I wish I was still blind to it all? I'm not sure. I wouldn't have the friends I've met. I wouldn't have map parts. I wouldn't be a digital artist. I wouldn't be an animator. (not very good yet, but still) I wouldn't have pretty much everything I've really accomplished on this site that has set me apart from others. But I wouldn't have the long nights I lay in bed planning my next project when I should be falling asleep. I wouldn't have the nagging itch for an ever-growing follower count. I wouldn't have the biggest distraction I've ever been given. So I need to moderate it. Scratch has BECOME who I am. That's why I chose this song for the background music. If you replace Scratch with The Office (TV show) and just get rid of the obviously more personal moments in the song, you describe my situation pretty well. Think of the girl moving away as the pandemic, and instead of The Office being what kept me company, it's Scratch being there for me, and "sitting with me" as the song says. Now my life is changing, I'm in 7th grade, almost 8th, and school is getting more serious, and I can't keep up bad habits I've made, watching map parts in between questions on my homework and whatnot. Who I am is in these episodes. I don't want scratch to define me. But it is starting to. My projects, what I say and do on Scratch, is that who I am now? I want to define myself. But who am I to tell me who I am? - I'm not leaving, I literally couldn't do that. I don't want to leave anyway. But I am going to distance myself from scratch. Try not to rely on it so heavily. It's not leaving. It's distancing. It's learning to let go. And learning to move on. Music is Netflix Trip by AJR (currently my favorite of their songs) good job if you read the whole thing :) And just to answer questions: I'll still be animating because I want to keep improving at it and Come Together and Goofy Goober Rock is still happening, and so will my AT's. It won't be like much has changed, I'll just be less active and I don't think I'll really join many maps unless I really want to. I'll answer any other questions to the best of my ability. It all seems kinda dramatic, but really, not much is going to change.
(New) Heyyyyyyyy guys it’s me, SketchE. Just wanna say that before this whole crazy COVID thing, I was on scratch periodically, but when everything was launched into the pandemic I found myself on scratch hours everyday. Now that life is returning to some resemblance of normal I’m getting back to the whole periodically active thing, so that’s something to expect from me now on.
