The Benefits of Taking a Step Back

If you're reading this, you're most likely a fairly hardcore Rangerphile, whether or not you condone the use of that particular suffix. You probably post at the Acorn Cafe or Chip and Dale Online multiple times a week (or day), you have some sort of Ranger memorabilia decorating some aspect of your personal space, and the Rangers slip into and out of your thoughts about as frequently as your loved ones. In short, you are devoted.

Let's focus on the community aspect of things for a bit. As said previously, you most likely are actively involved in some sort of Ranger community. When rambling off a list of your closest friends, obviously-online pseudonyms are intermixed with a person you've met in person here and there. The trials and tribulations of those who post online become as real to you as a family crisis, as do their triumphs. Keeping up with posts on your internet message board of choice soon comes to take precedence over social functions happening right around you.

When this happens, do us all a favour and take a step back. We love having you in the community with us, and we don't even particularly want you to go; that said, close your browser window, grab a jacket, and go outside. Go see that friend of yours you've been neglecting. Watch that TV show you haven't gotten to watch because you've been finding more errors for Tanka's website. Go talk to that girl you've been waffling about in the Acorn Chat for a month now. Take a step back, and take a look at life.

You may be thinking that I'm going too far, that I'm acting like community involvement is a bad or unhealthy thing. Well, I guess I am. People you know on the Internet automatically occupy a rung below the people you (supposedly) deal with on a daily basis, and they miss you. Besides, by taking a break from CDRR for a short while, you can focus on so many other things you've been neglecting. And then, when you do re-immerse yourself in the fandom, it'll all seem that much more fresh to you. You'll have new viewpoints from which to consider this character foible and that plot twist.

Take a step back. You'll thank me for it later.

- Campisi