How I Ended Up Back on the Plaza

[Istya Alassea]

When I read Firerose Arien's post about how the Plaza had already greatly impacted her life, I so wanted to send her a couple of Amens. Since I know how much the original Plaza had impacted my life too, I also just decided to send the new IT team my own big Thank You for bringing it back.

When I first started posting around the Plaza, I was actually doing research for a term paper I had due in my film production college class. (I was focusing on film editing at the time, and I had chosen to analyze The Fellowship of the Ring.) Due to the Lore part of the website, I was able to get down some real answers for facts I did not have yet. And the new facts got me even more motivated to read the rest of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I had started reading the year before. By the time I finished with the book and with the Hobbit, I couldn't resist my real passion anymore: writing, linguistics and literature. I declared my second major my junior year of college, and also took on a minor in Spanish and Portuguese. By the time I was in my final year of college, I was actively role-playing on the Plaza and had become a true Tolkien and LOTR geek. Just because I could, one of my last college classes ever was in Tolkien's linguistics.

Due to my change of major and minor, I was therefore able to land my first full-time job in bilingual education. (Thank you, Plaza, for basically helping me get my first job!) I so would have headed to Los Angeles, otherwise. But I ended up staying put in Texas. For my next full-time job, it went even further than that: I taught Spanish, Latin and Language Arts to a ton of different kids at all sorts of grade levels. I had to quit the Plaza by then, I was so up to my ears with all the work. But, for that same reason, my teaching career ended on a bad note. I wanted more time to myself to just live life, write, and be creative. So I tried coming back here. But then I finally found another full-time job fit for myself, and real life carried me away again.

Presently, I am working for the State of Texas, and while the job is mainly administrative, it also involves a lot of writing. My boss is always telling me to edit and then edit some more. Which is funny to me. That's all I ever wanted to do since I was a kid: write and edit.

Four years after I started with my full-time job, one of my close friends asked me to assist with her big wedding day. The moment I got my first compliment from an experienced wedding planner that day, I then also got hooked onto event planning. I actually butted heads with my wedding coordinator when I got married a year and a half later. I so wanted to just do the job myself.

I mention what is now my part-time job because I got nostalgic for the Plaza last year, I Googled up my original plaza name. I was sad to see the site was down, but I did find a few things that still existed. I had to laugh out loud when I saw an outdated biography for Istya Alassea. On her resume, it literally stated "owner of the Shire Party Planners' Event Organization." Wow, I thought. My business idea had been there all along! I knew right then that my Shire's event planning organization was the real impetus and inspiration for my current wedding planning business model.

Hubby and I got pregnant late last year, so when it came time to put together a list of baby names, you can imagine what ended up on the girl name list. The real life English version of Alassea, which is Alyssa, and it is our favorite girl name choice right now. (Here's hoping my sister-in-law's objection to the name gets overruled!)

So my big question for returning Plazaites is, How did everyone else get back here? How has the Plaza changed your life already?

[Winddancer]

That is so awesome! Plaza can be amazing can't it?? :D

So when is the lil one due? And dont let your in law decide the name for you, go for it, its beautiful! :)

Saying that the Plaza influenced my job would be stretching it.. I am a minion, in Mordor, Sauron.. The Eye.. I work in an opticians

However, the plaza has definitely changed my life as I met my s/o here. Technically we knew of each other since he joined in 2003, but it wasnt until 6½ almost 7 years ago that we actually met and then I decided to move to the UK and we then became a thing. So different country, new job and a BF of 6 years, not too bad! :D

[Dimcairien Luiniel]

Second Wind's question about when your little hobbit is due.

On May 13th (literally five days ago) there was a conversation going on in the Facebook group about how a bunch of us wanted the Plaza back and that there had been some talk of reestablishing the forum. One way or another, Narv ended up joining the Facebook group and linking this site. So, yeah, this weird and wonderful thing happened Wednesday night and I've been here since. 3000+ posts and 100+ members in such a short time is crazy but so fun. It was certainly unexpected to say the least.

I had drifted away from the Plaza around 2014 as RL took over, but popped on every now and then for a quick lurk. I did stay connected with a few Plazaites over Facebook and in the Facebook group. Now that it's back, I'm hoping to stay involved.

I think I've said it in more detail in the Newbies and Introductions thread, but the plaza gave me a community during my teenage years, when I was simply going through a rough time and felt like I didn't have very many friends in RL. It also was the first form of social media that I had, aside from an email, and I am so thankful that I stumbled upon this loving and safe community while probably looking for an LOTR quiz. It was probably one of the best places to start understanding the internet.

[Finduilas Faelivrin]

Presently, I am working for the State of Texas, and while the job is mainly administrative, it also involves a lot of writing. My boss is always telling me to edit and then edit some more. Which is funny to me. That's all I ever wanted to do since I was a kid: write and edit.

That's me! Proof-reading my posts over and over until they were "perfect." I don't work for Texas, but all through my work life, I had to write and edit and edit some more (subsea engineering, working with people with mental health issues, etc). I'm pretty much retired now, but I still have plenty to keep me busy. One fun thing I've been doing lately is proof-reading our Priest's letters & things (church bulletin and the like). He's East Indian and is a beautiful writer, though his English is "iffy." I love doing it and making him sound good.

As far as the Plaza, I have always had wonderful memories about being able to exit RL and end up on some back alley, a shop, on a battlefield or whatever. I have longed to go back to those days, but we've had Plazas self-destruct (sorta) twice already. I'm crossing my fingers that this one will hold together for a little longer! Go, @Narv!

[Istya Alassea]

@Winddancer , I would still count your Orcness to be a job influence in you becoming an optician! Haha, that's pretty good.
And to answer both of your due date questions, our baby is due in mid July. It is coming up fast! I ended up falling asleep shortly after my last post. That's how tired I am getting.

@Finduilas Faelivrin , I can totally see how editing for your church bulletin would be fascinating. That's probably something I would do too if I had tons more time on my hands. You never really know, either, which jobs require great writing skills until you get behind the desk. I never would have thought engineers had to write so much until I saw my husband crafting letters to send to his clients. It's honestly half his job.

Let's hope this Plaza keeps going!

[Eldy Dunami]

I was lucky that when I checked FB on Wednesday night for the first time in a couple days, it was about five minutes after Narv shared the link to this place, so I was able to nab the first non staff / test account. It came completely out of the blue for me. I've actually deliberately disengaged from forums as a whole lately for a variety of reasons. I resigned my staff position on my primary site and I've posted less this year than at any time since I was 13-14. I'm not sure I would've started posting actively again even if the OG Plaza had come back, but the combination of old faces and a new start here proved irresistible.

Recent disillusionment aside, however, forums had a transformative effect on my life. It would be easier to list things from the past twelve years that haven't been influenced, directly or indirectly, by my involvement in various online communities. Even when it comes to academics, having something that was my wholly own (Lore/Tolkien studies), which my parents and professors didn't even know about for a long time, made a big difference in terms of gaining a measure of self-confidence.

[Goldberri]

I really have very fond memories of the plaza and this feeling of finally having found a community of people who were interested in the same things as me (I was never one of the popular girls and much preferred the company of a good book to partying and getting drunk) and I loved how fun and positive and international this place was. It really was a great place to start exploring this wild new world of the internet (I grew up with parents who were and are very suspicious of new technologies) Around that time I also knew I wanted to do something with languages as a profession and I actually started translating LOTR into German. Just as a practice. Fast forward to last year and after many a detour, I finally got my Master's degree in Literary Translation :smiley8:
I thought about the plaza every once in a while and still have a few people I'm in contact with via facebook. So I was very delighted when one of them told me on Sunday evening that it's back and here I am! Connecting with 18-year old me and my Entish self. It's weird and wonderful and a very peculiar feeling of seeing how much I've changed since back then. This whole thing feels a lot like a school reunion, so many familiar names popping up, so many funny old stories... I really love it!