I've found that I possess a rather addictive personality, especially with regard to the Internet, which has caused me a bit of trouble over the years. For quite a while, I shied away from message boards, as I thought them stupid, but then I happened upon Cheat Planet (as it was called when I came). When I first began posting there, I thought it would stay a small hobby, something on the side. But as I became acquainted with the people there, began to appreciate their complex dispositions and demeanors, and learned to love the interaction I had with them, I had a problem: I was hooked.

I spent nearly two years on that message board, building a reputation for myself under the alias of Psyke, a name that soon became synonymous with erudition, knowledge, and wisdom. My time spent there was some of the most enjoyable in my life.

Planet Community (as it was later called) closed recently, but I had left long before then, for the magic of the place was lost to the simple-minded shenanigans of spam-spouting schmucks. I still miss some the people I met there, as they had become very close (emotionally, if not physically) friends.

But, as usual, I digress. The purpose of this entry is to explain my addiction to Melo, an affliction I'm sure I share with many of you, my friends and fellow frequenters.

I was told about this place by Leila (livingendfreak) a friend of mine whom I met through Debate. I arrived not quite knowing what to expect, but after spending a bit of time I discovered that Melo was a great opportunity to express myself. So I posted my first entry. That's when my addiction began.

I blame for my Melo habit on my yearning to interact with people who are like me, my fervent desire to share myself with others and allow them to share themselves with me. It is this urge to be accepted and loved that has influenced me most throughout life, as I have always striven to garner affection and approval from my peers. This is what Melodramatic provides for me: a chance to show my inner feelings, that roiling maelstrom of emotion within me, to those who matter most to me, my friends and fellow teenagers.

Before long, I began spending all the time I wasn't actually on Melo thinking about what to write next, or contemplating what my friends have posted, or wondering how many people have responded to one of my entries. And that's where I am now. Aside from absorbing new music through various sources, Melo is my free time at the moment. Melo is my existence, the sanity in the midst of all the stress and madness that have commandeered my life.

Melodramatic is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. It has consumed all that I am to transform me into an addict, a junkie, desperate and twitching for another fix. And yet even as Melo draws me toward oblivion, I succumb to its intoxicating embrace as a vampire's victim docilely surrenders to the bite. I will not struggle against its call, its seduction, its beckoning; nay, I shall accept my fate, my destiny. I am a Melothespian.

[Exit Orpheum.]