One Year of Street Fighter, and Many More for the FGC Life

Hey everyone, this is "Miss ShinoBee". I suppose it's time I start a daily blog to vent out my thoughts and chit chat a bit more about what's on my mind and what's going on in my life, since you can only do so much on other social media platforms.

Wall art from ArcadeStream in Seoul, Korea.

At this point, it's been a year since I started playing Ultra Street Fighter IV. I first got to try it out at Capcom Cup 2013, then once more at SoCal Regionals 2014. During this time, I was trying to lead a "more normal" life but also wanted to finally get out of the North American continent for once. It was the first time I traveled out of the country on my own: I was a 22 year old girl that honestly didn't know what she was gonna do in life and no serious goals. I was not motivated, unless it involved chasing false dreams that turned out to be disappointments.

I first played USFIV on console in Seoul, South Korea. I remember having no clue on anything about Street Fighter 4 except that Poison was cool and that I was going to pick up the game once Ultra was out. I remember getting looked down for fucking sucking. What do you expect? It wasn't like The King of Fighters or Tekken (I sucked at both of those games despite liking them), it was a game I didn't take too seriously because I had no interest in it during previous years. And then I saw the problem: I jumped in not knowing what to do. It was jumping into a deep sea of danger without any scuba gear or a flotation device, where I could sink and come out dead. After that, more disappointments occurred that spiraled into swimming in the deep sea of no return.

Or so I thought.

Then it occurred to me. After enough moping and not getting shit done around, I realized "Hey, what the hell? My family didn't raise a dumbass. My life isn't over. Fuck what those idiots think. Fuck those people that tried to make me quit USFIV by constantly talking down on me even though they are no better. I shouldn't look up to them, I should have looked up to the people who matter, who are there for me and make sure no one gets in my way." With whatever I had, whatever help I found along the way, I floated back up to the surface.

That doesn't mean I ended up quitting. No, I jumped right back in, willing to fight more. But this time, I have motivation, goals, and a future to carve and look forward to. Sure, there may be times I'm feeling down, but that didn't make me quit. That didn't make me whine about the FGC being toxic and that it should be annihilated.

Looking back, I was younger and dumber. Hell, I still think I'm young and dumb! I definitely need to learn a lot more, but I'm willing to become wiser. Do I get busy? I definitely get busy and I definitely get exhausted, but I can't let that stop me. I still so many goals waiting for me, and if I were to give up now, I might as well give up on living. That is definitely not on the agenda.

Here's to a year of playing Street Fighter. 
Here's to a year where my life took a turn. 
Here's to a year of surviving the odds and fighting no matter what. 
Here's to a year of not giving up. 

Here's to surviving the first half of the 2015 saga.