How to Stop Wildfire FIFTH Anniversary
Has it really been five years? It really has been. I can’t fathom it and yet at the same time, now, at the near end of this major arc with Emerald Haze, the years seem far too apt. It has been a long while since I first scrappily put out How to Stop Wildfire. That was a major accomplishment for myself. It was so small in a way, and yet, it was massive. It was the foundation of all that followed. As the foundation, I constantly look back at it. With adoration and…sometimes frustration. I look back at it thinking of my mistakes and my wishes. The former had to happen for the latter to ever come in truth.
This anniversary, I’m thinking: I’ve gotten a bit old (older, old, whatever). The series is older. So much has changed…and, yet, stayed the same. The characters are the same, but they’ve changed as I have. Maybe they’ve matured or maybe they’ve realized they don’t need to be mature. Maybe they are the way they are and that’s OK.
And there’s more of them. I’ve met more people and the connections have grown steadily. Deepening, widening, and just…spreading out. The series keeps pushing outward, and yet, keeps coming back to its roots. And still, change happens. More change will happen and more will come.
That’s always next.
Next.
I am thinking what’s next. I am thinking…I can do anything. I’m not bound to anything now. I can choose how to proceed. I can choose how I want to move forward in this crazy world. The world that keeps on giving and taking and then giving right back. In this world, I put myself out there, took myself back, and I’m putting myself back and that’s where I’ll be. I’m here for good.
It’s like it was before: but this line in the sand proves it. Sand…I always loved the idea of sand. Of sweeping sand dunes. I am making a line and maybe it’ll get swept away. Or maybe it’s the only thing that will stay there as gales sweep by.
These five years have certainly swept by and yet they’ve been long. If I think who I was five years ago, this me of now is foreign and yet…all to be admired. The path is different, but the end shares the same burning flame that I wanted and seized.
And so, to these next five years, I only hope that I spread further like a Wildfire.
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