Good afternoon everyone! Well, it's afternoon here anyways! :)

I've popped in and out over the past few months and I've noticed an overall negativity surrounding the forums when I visited. I wanted to share a few thoughts with you all in hopes that it will help us treat one another better and hopefully, with more love and kindness. The one thing we all have in common is our mutual love of this great website and we have the ability to either keep building on the positive environment we have here or to let it turn into something toxic.

• Show Empathy - I think first and foremost, we all need to remember and keep in the back of our minds that this is a forum on the internet. With that said, there will be people from all backgrounds, ages, colors and in all different places in life. What you say on here could have either a positive or a negative effect on their life. So, show the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. We've already lost one great member in Rachel let's try not to lose anymore over petty arguments and disagreements that we can easily settle without letting it get completely out of hand. Keep in mind, if someone is saying or behaving in a hurtful way, that could be a sign of something deeper going on in their life and what they could need right now is to be shown a little love and patience. :)

• Spread Positivity - With the aforementioned, let me encourage you to choose the option to spread positivity. Not only here in the forums, but take that into your everyday life. I'll be completely blunt with you, when we leave this world, the only thing we will leave behind is the memories others will have of us. Life is entirely too short and precious to argue over things that could have been easily prevented if we had shown each other a little empathy from the start. If someone has offended you in some way, the best way to counter that is by being the bigger person, showing empathy and trying to somehow bring a smile to their face. Fight negativity by showing them positivity, instead of sinking to their level. Nothing will show negative people more satisfaction than letting them know you let them get under your skin. Set an example for others to follow. :)

• Learn to Forgive If someone has offended you here or shown you something less than a positive attitude, let me encourage you to show the forgiveness that both you and them deserve. I have been wronged many times in my life, and holding on to the hurt, anger and resentment 9 times out of 10 does nothing, but bring me down. While the person who did the hurting has most likely moved on with life. Don't that let that one small moment bring the rest of your day down, or in contrast, your week or month.

If you feel like you're words aren't important or will have no impact on another person's life, no matter how great or small, I will remind you that a member here committed suicide after making this thread, aftermath here. We need to be reminded of this, because I have seen some serious hate in the forums these past few months.

With that said, I will remind you, that this IS the internet were talking about and there will be sarcasm and trolls and really hateful people here. By the very definition. It's the internet. How YOU respond, will determine the outcome. :)

If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person. - Mr. Rogers

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