What Happens Next?

“Quitting is not giving up, it's choosing to focus your attention on something more important. Quitting is not losing confidence, it's realizing that there are more valuable ways you can spend your time. Quitting is not making excuses, it's learning to be more productive, efficient and effective instead. Quitting is letting go of things (or people) that are sucking the life out of you so you can do more things that will bring you strength.”
― Osayi Osar-Emokpae, Impossible is Stupid

Hi. Chances are if you've seen me bid farewell here before, only to come back, you may be thinking I'm going to resume the cycle. It will be tough, but I am more resilient than ever before, and will be trying my hardest to keep my word. I've said time and time again that once I leave, I somehow return. I've had a problem with this for a very long time. I've turned my "leaves" from things into hiatuses sometimes by complete accident. Since early 2023, I've been working hard to break this addictive cycle, little by little.

I'm making a big deal about moving forward because some people know how far in this community I've come. When I've talked about getting busier, everything felt like entries. This time, the next chapter in my life is so significant that I even don't fully know what the future is holding for me next, but I am taking control of that every day that I can.

Someone who I used to consider a friend said to me months ago that usually when people leave something, they come back (this is when I was quitting Pokémon GO very suddenly). Mazik reiterated that to me today on the Discord server when I was doing my dumb countdown. While I can say that Mazik's universal thinking is incorrect (this doesn't "always" happen to people who decide to quit something - good examples of this are c0wmanglr and petalflurry), Mazik is right that keeping my word is going to be tricky, especially while I haven't kept it here before. So...

Why not put "Jiquor will come back" in your next Time Capsule post, and see whether you're right or wrong?

One example for me this year of me leaving something permanently is by leaving Pokémon GO completely. When I found out that the company removed one of the best features in the game on April 1st this year, I put my foot down. I removed the application and fought for the feature's return on-line for a couple of weeks. The feature never returned. I never came back and have felt more happy and at peace being away from that horrible game. This year, I've also left several projects, retired from an important local committee in my community, among others. This has been the year of, when I want to leave something, I want to leave something.

This is my last year of college. I'm taking a full quarter load (18 credits) and preparing for graduation and grad school out of state. On top of that, I got promoted at work yesterday by complete surprise (and I really love my job, I can study while I'm at work!) and found myself potentially starting a new program locally (which I will know more about this coming Thursday). I run a small business. STOP DeluXe has had a surge of players (we see at least 30 to 40 a day now!) and many requested new features which we are working to finish up. I'm up to my eyeballs right now. The hand of how much I've got going on has gone from my chin to if I were wearing a ten gallon hat. It's crazy.

Shortly speaking, I am running out of time. I am hoping that people will understand why I don't want to be known anymore as someone who quits something only to come back. I get why - it's tricky, but I will say the third time that I am breaking this habit, and doing my best. These next chapters are even greater than I could have known. I hope you'll respect and understand why the decision I am making is so significant to me personally.

There are three things I have on my todo list before I set the bar where I am going on my indefinite hiatus:
1. The Hall of Fame is still in progress. More information is being shared tomorrow. The stage is almost finished, and polishing/interior design will be handed off to Connie since I have no time left.
2. While I recognize that, unfortunately, STOP DeluXe has become separate from this community (not by choice, it's just unfortunately the way it is), I am sharing one last update before I depart, then updates will just occur through my own community. Since this is still a big project with a different community behind me, I still have STOP DeluXe on my plate. I consider that an important piece for my portfolio which is why I cannot put that away and won't for years to come. At some point though, the major updates have to stop (no pun intended). RandomityGuy knows this too and this has been set in stone.
3. Finally, I am sending my portion of the Time Capsule to someone I trust in this community (I will update it to them personally on December 31, long after I have declared my absence from the community). When it is unlocked, they will post it for me when they can. But I won't be here to check it.

What's next?
The short answer is that even I do not know, but I am taking control of it - turning this from an "I don't know" to "I want to know". While I may remain in the Discord server, I won't be checking my Discord account (I have a University one). I might delete my Discord account by next year though since I won't have a use for my University one and have also been getting sick of Discord myself with the recent awful changes they've made.

Thank you to those who wish me the best of luck.

What exactly does leaving "here" entail? I never said goodbye, but my activity in this community has been reduced to lurking the forums. If I stopped doing that, things wouldn't really change for anyone. I imagine the biggest effect would be a bit more difficulty in contacting me, in the unlikely event someone wanted to.