To respect the privacy of the people depicted in this deviation, I’ve only labeled each person by their initials.

(TheOtaku) This certainly isn’t fan art, but I saw that personal category and found that others were posting works that wasn’t relevant to an anime/video game. I’ll stick to F-Zero: Seppuku and EngelReise art from here on out.

Graduation is here, and I’ve had great friends throughout. Many of my original friends no longer speak with me, which in all honesty does sadden me greatly. Even if I don’t socialize with some of these people anymore, the fun memories I had are impossible to erase, and for those who see this that are in this list; this is a thank you, for the great life you have all given someone as silent and isolated as me~

I alphabetized this list to make this easier, but I’m going to start off with my two greatest friends:

Brandon: It’s mind-boggling how a friendship made over ROBLOX so many years ago could continue to grow so much. My friendship with Brandon has always been great and enjoyable, and being completely honest, I believe that I would have killed myself years ago without him to help me through some of the massive depressions (Love, post-anime syndrome, and stress) I commonly had. Never in my life could I have imagined that my best friend would be a metal-head, but sure enough, this is the prime example of the saying, ‘Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover’. Brandon is a reader of F-Zero: Seppuku, helps me turn my stories into games with RPG Maker, makes music for my stories on guitar, and will invest countless days invading the world with me in Grand Strategy games. While there has certainly been times where I get mad at Brandon and will go to extreme lengths to avoid him, never, will I ever threaten our friendship as a whole.

Brittany: My first girlfriend, Brittany had a major influence on my life. Brittany is albino, a trait I had come to greatly admire (hence the reason I love pale skinned girls now J), this was the trait that had brought us together for 8 months. While our relationship is now over, I feel that I now have much more confidence approaching those who I have feelings for. Brittany is also a reader of F-Zero: Seppuku, and is the president of the Chiyrl’s (Chiya x Earl fans); even with a now-broken relationship, we continue to hang out, and she continues to help those who are feeling down. Brittany is easily one of my greatest friends, and her devotion to helping others has clearly not gone unnoticed by many.

SF: This person was without a doubt my best friend throughout both elementary and high school. Our friendship has completely died, this has always amazed me. It seemed that in a mere year, our friendship had gone from unbreakable, to the point where I even talk to my cat more. Regardless of this, SF and me have a great past; whether it was from when we drew Chao comics together, to the days of the online MMO, Star Wars Galaxies, or perhaps during our days on ROBLOX. Our friendship always had curves, but I still regarded him as my favorite friend for these many years of school. Despite how much I seem to complain, I can’t lie and say that this person hasn’t made my life better in school. Without him, my life as a social outcast in school would have intensified greatly; having that one great friend who could make a hilarious joke out of pretty much anything was great. Our friendship may be over, but I truly believe that I will carry on more happy memories, than negative ones.

MK: This person is definitely my best school friend. He’s had a very hard school life with bullies, and I greatly admire that he rode this out to the very end. It’s ironic, Senior year I had promised that I would finally be the friend I should be and come to his aid if someone began to push him around. Immediately after I published the article about bullying in our school paper, the bullying seemed to have settled down; so I never did get the chance to finally blow up on someone. I’ve had many great conversations with MK, and he was the one friend I had that seemed to always be up for Mario Party when we were kids. He’s helped me get out of many situations in the past, while he may not be a very merciful person in Grand Strategy games, I have heavy admiration for this person, and the immense struggles he fought through in school.

GL: My first friend, and my best friend. GL has always stuck by my side, not so much as a friend, but rather, like a brother. He and I spent countless days doing anything from video games, to sports, to casual walks together. I’ve always felt that I was a mentor to him--politically. He and I don’t socialize as much as we used to, but I know that he still views me as a great friend, just as I do with him. Even though I’m graduating and begin my journey to full adulthood, I still intend on hanging out with GL, even if one of us lives far away from the other.

JN: We went from being Star Wars buddies, to Chao World buddies, to NFL rivals. I love the Dallas Cowboys, and he loves the Philadelphia Eagles; for long we’ve shared a friendly rivalry with each other, and I personally love it. Like many of my friends, JN has moved on and rode the rest of high school more-so with a cordial friendship with me. I would often become infuriated inside whenever he tried to slander the next two in my list of friends; but I never let this brief bit of immaturity damage our friendship. I was ecstatic to see that one of my original close friends had become a football player for our school, and for some time, we let him stay at our house after/before practice. While I don’t believe I’ll ever see him again after graduation, I’ll have fond memories of the strong friendship us two tall students had.

MS: Of all my original friends, this is the person I really wish I had continued to talk to. He was into Chao World and anime, two things I greatly loved. To this day, I still list anime/manga as my favorite thing, so I often get very upset whenever I think of how I let this friendship disappear. Today, I truly believe that this is the one person I would very much like to still be friends with, perhaps talk about anime we’ve watched. Throughout our Oral Communications class, MS often spoke about Touhou Project; an anime I plan on watching after Space battleship Yamato. I like pretty much all anime; I love something as gorey and dark as Hellsing: Ultimate, and even something as soft and cuddly as Girls und Panzer. If I could go back in time and change things, I would try and speak with this person more, because this is the kind of person I truly want as a friend--someone with similar interests. Both him and his sister are people I greatly respect, and I recently learned that we both plan on going to the same college for Web Design--so who knows, perhaps I’ll have another chance in the end. I wish I knew why I stopped hanging out with him, but one thing is for sure; I certainly made a mistake letting one of the few people with good taste in TV/Video games go.

DS: Likely the only other girl I categorize as a friend, is the sister of MS. I had met her just before I entered Middle School, and had immediately gained massive respect for her after she gave me two special Chao on her Gamecube memory card (I was a really big Chao World addict back then…), to me, this was one of the greatest gifts I had ever received. As silly as it may sound, much of my respect for her still derives from that year. I went throughout school very sad that we weren’t in the same class together, as she sounded like the kind of person I would talk to everyday. It wasn’t until later that I learned that she also liked anime and Erin Hunter’s Warriors series; so I always felt it was unfortunate that I hadn’t known this earlier (Fortunate for her though, because I probably would have never left her alone… XD) Today I see her at the grocery store, and I’m thankful that I still have the opportunity to speak with her every so often. I’ll certainly be very sad the day she quits, because I’ll definitely miss seeing such a gleeful person at the checkout. While she may not have been someone I had the opportunity to talk to much in school, had we been in the same class, I would easily say that she would have become my best friend.