Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone.

Just visited NG today for the first time in a while and I was surprised to see the site redesigned. Hell, I haven't contributed anything to NG in years, yet I was still somewhat thrilled. I remembered being around for NG's previous redesign, and seeing the whole layout change then really got me excited to see what was new in the site, even if it was just an aesthetic change. I guess I'm feeling the same here. Not a whole lot different, but it's all so fresh and new that it warms my heart. I mean, I'm looking at all these smiley faces here, and it looks like there's 3 times as many as there was before. That's pretty cool.

Yeah, I don't know why I'm posting this. My previous news post was 3 years ago, and that one was about how I was just posting so that I didn't have to see the year old post before that.

I guess I'm just writing this to reflect on Newgrounds back in my earlier days. Man, 5 years ago, this shit got me excited. I saw people create these awesome flash animations, and having such a user friendly site like this, I felt like I could make it big. I looked up at these animators and I thought I could be one of them. Hell, nowadays I kinda laugh when I remember some of the trash I used to admire. But it didn't mater back then. I thought I could make the next Homestar Runner or Bonus Stages; at the age of 14...

Fleeting dream? I guess. Waste of time? Nah. I felt like I've learned a lot since then. Sure, I've never completed a flash animation, but I've definitely learned a lot from trying to finish one.