The Decision That Changed My Life (My Animal Jam History)

Hey jammers! Panda here...

So, the other week, I was thinking about Animal Jam--how I first started the game, how I met some of my buddies, how I started this blog... and it got me to realize something.

Animal Jam has changed my life. So has this blog. 

Sorry--this is starting out kind of sappy and sentimental. XP But I'll just start my story from the beginning and hope that it all makes sense to you...

(This is going to be kind of a long post, so if you're not interested, I'll add a break directly below so that you don't have to scroll through the entire post to view some of our past posts. Also, I'll be including little tidbits from my real life, so if you're also not interested in that, then all the more reason to keep on scrolling and take a look at some of our other posts. ^.^)

I first heard about Animal Jam from one of my real-life best friends (at the time) in 2013. She had been playing Animal Jam for about... 2 months, maybe? I had gone over to her house and she had showed me Animal Jam. I was fascinated by the intricate, detailed world, and the adorable animals. The thing I ever did was play the Claw, and I won several wolf and horse plushies for my friend.

When I went home that day, I made an account. I chose the username awesomepanda868 because I loved pandas and my favorite numbers are 8 and 6. My first animal was a panda, named Flora Daisypanda, whom I still have and play as.

I played Animal Jam for awhile that night. The first item I ever bought was a bamboo fence (which I also still have).

I soon grew bored with the game, however. I neglected my account for several months.

Around October, however, I was bored one day and logged back into my account. I played a bit more, and was soon absorbed into the game. I traded, played games, went on adventures... the whole dealio. My first rare was a set of rare butterfly wings, and it was at that moment that I became interested in rares.

I spent nearly 2 hours per day for the next several months playing Animal Jam, collecting rares and making new friends.

My friend, who had originally introduced me to Animal Jam, was going to get a membership for Christmas. We excitedly planned out what she was going to buy when she became a member during our bus rides to school together each morning. We were both so obsessed with the berets and the pink sofas! XD

We continued to play Animal Jam together for the rest of 2013 and the first half of 2014. However, I had a sort of falling out with her. She had been my best friend in real life for almost 3 years (I had moved to her town about 3 and a half years ago, so we had been friends for the majority of that time). We always had a good laugh together, and I couldn't imagine life without her.

But she soon began to change. She became obsessed with clothes, shoes and how her hair looked. She would always gaze longingly at the "popular girls" whenever I was talking to her, and that was when I realized that she wasn't enjoying her time with me as much as she used to. I think she considered me a sort of roadblock in the way of her becoming one of the popular girls.

This angered me. How could my friend so casually throw away our friendship?

We sort of passive-aggressively interacted with each other for the last 2 months of school. There was another girl in my class whom I was friends with, and my other friend was getting jealous of all the time I was spending with this other girl.

The school year ended at an awkward moment with me and my friend, and we didn't talk at all after we were forced to spend time together in school everyday. I wasn't too sad though, because this new friend that I had (we'll just call her "S") was super nice and we had a great time together.

S soon joined Animal Jam too, and we had a blast together playing online. We'd trade, go on adventures, and we soon became pretty rare together.

In July, I finally got a 1-year membership. I am still thankful to my parents to this day for purchasing the membership for me. It gave me so much joy and happiness to finally be able to buy and wear and use all of the features and items I had always dreamed of using.

Then, I learned that I was moving. I wasn't moving super far away, just to the next town over. But it meant that I wouldn't be in the same school as everyone else.

What was sort of weird was that S was also moving away that summer, but to a place much farther away. I would definitely miss her, but I hoped that we could stay in touch through email and Animal Jam

By this point, I had started my own blog. It wasn't this blog, but those of you who have known me for awhile know what it was called and such. I fell in love with blogging, and this is the part where the whole "decision that changed my life" things comes into play.

Without joining Animal Jam, I never would have seen all of the AJ blogs out there. Without seeing those blogs, I never would have started my own blog. If I had never started my own blog, I never would have found my love for graphic design and web communication that I have now.

Thanks to Animal Jam, I'll definitely have some sort of career with graphic design and/or writing/blogging.

I soon devoted my blog to a different purpose (I still have that same blog up right now, and I use it for more "professional" reasons, and I make some money off of it--about $10/month).

In October of 2014, I made this blog. Animal Jam Graphic Central.

I blogged every single day for months without getting noticed. I hardly got any traffic, and it was discouraging. But I found blogging so fun that I never stopped.

Eventually, I began to get more traffic, and it was the greatest feeling. To be recognized for your hard work and effort.

When I did end up moving to a different town, I hardly had any friends. Nobody wanted to talk to me, and I fell into a sort of depression. Not anything serious, but I wasn't as happy as I should have been.

Blogging really saved me from feeling too depressed. Coming home from a hard day at school and getting to work on my blog felt too amazing to be true.

This community of bloggers, jammers, YouTubers, artists... we're all so epic and supportive of each other. Animal Jam has connected me with people I'd never have met without the Internet.

I will be forever thankful to all of you for your endless support, and to this amazing game for all that it has done for me.

Thank you, Animal Jam. Thank you, blogging. Thank you, Animal Jam community.

You have all changed my life, in a way that I will never forget.

-Panda