I Launch into the Sky

In December of 2011 there was a can in high sec that changed my life forever.

I was a week or so old and travelling around Gallente space mining. I had learned about anchoring secure canisters and I was very excited to start this awesome way to mine in a more secure fashion. I did courier missions as well. I was new and small but I had already subscribed to the game for the next three months and I was excited.

This particular can was located near Dodixie. I feared Dodixie. Every time I docked at the trade hub I passed through raging battles and iridescent explosions. I knew that death was just someone noticing my Catalyst and snuffing my little ship. After all, I had entered a PvP environment and I expected to die.

This can, however, was located near a gate. My overview was absolutely virgin and included everything in the game. Everything in space interested me and on my main screen I could see that the can was an advertisement for a corporation. A corporation with a minimum of 5 million skill points. I’m not sure I had 100k skill points at that time. 5 million would obviously grand me the powers of a god and open doors everywhere.

Of course, that is ignorance speaking. It doesn’t work that way. I wound up in a low sec PvP corporation with barely a million skill points to my name and zero knowledge of anything. I went to live with them for the next year and a half learning about Eve and learning to love Eve. But time changes and some needs cannot be met even in the most comfortable and beloved of situations and I started to think about leaving.

My decision to join 7-2 wasn’t made in haste, anger or anything else other than needing to move away from home to force change upon myself. Someone asked me why I changed corps when the day before I was telling them how amazing THC is. Leaving THC does not somehow invalidate how fantastic the people are. I grew up there. My boys have raised me and taught me everything. In a way it is like moving off to college and maxing out my first credit cards as I learn finical responsibility.

7-2 however, has an application that perspective members have to fill out. These types of applications are common. It is Eve after all. As I understand it, other MMO’s can be just as intense about joining. Yet, as I eyed 7-2’s application and the minimum skill point requirements I remembered that can in high sec.  I had learned that the number of skill points possessed did not grant immediate knowledge and ability. Plus, I’d be moving into a circle where there would be no warm, parental memories of raising me.

The application itself scared me. I waffled across it for a few weeks. Ship fitting is awkward. I steal my fits. I understand a lot of basic theory but I am not a fit goddess. I function better sitting down with someone that has a clue and then poking at EFT. Reverse engineering and then implementation works better for me. My confidence issues made me shy away from that aspect of the application for quite a while. I read other applications over and over and then suddenly something snaped inside. I realized that the fits required on the application were already in my hangar. I had managed to convince myself I had to come up with these fits from scratch.

But I didn’t. I flew with 7-2 all of the time. I had stacks of their fits in my hangar in their station. I’d just feed them what they had fed me. It would not be amazing and special but I am not amazing and special when it comes to fitting ships. Instead, I could show that I can and will fly what is expected of me. I’ve learned that many, many people cannot do that simple thing. My entire Eve life has revolved around it and what seems to be a weakness, in that light, is also a strength.

The next step was what took me the longest to put together. I had joked that if I ever joined 7-2 I would fill out the application in Haikus. While it was a flight of fancy I decided to follow through with my world. My inspiration was all of the corporations that have various arts and crafts for people to show a unique talent when being considered for a corporation. If I have an excessive amount of anything, it is creativity. I am also often whimsical and something of a dreamer. I decided to focus these aspects of myself and present them. I had no idea how it would actually go over when I presented the application. Would it amuse them or be seen as a troll? Yet, as I typed and typed and read references and beat the information out of Wikipedia I decided that if they didn’t like it they’d probably not like me as a corp mate. If anything, my application was my attempt to present my personality and what adding me to the corporation might bring.

What was a straight forward question and answer process turned into an almost week long project on my side. I wasn’t just going to write haikus I was going to write haikus that answered the questions. When I exhausted my ability to write haikus due to the nature of the questions I switched over to essays and research. I brought forward the same quarks that created the Origin of a Spaceship and poured into my application.

And I did it all because that is the type of person that I am. I could have trotted around and asked to join without an application. But, if I was going to write a bad one I wanted that to be known. I wanted to enter the corp on my own merits and not just ‘yay we like Sugar’ type thing. I don’t mind the ‘yay we like Sugar’ aspect at all but I didn’t want to fully ride on it. I decided to go in full force. I unleashed myself upon my application.

This is the link to my 7-2 application.

Because I cannot post on the 7-2 recruitment forums as a member of MoldenHeath.Net I sent the link to the goggle document with my app. After a day, I finally nervously twitched and was sent the feedback for my application. It seems that they liked it. I was relieved and unwound from the tense, nervous knot that stifled my words and stilled my fingers. They accepted me and I spent time penning a goodbye but not goodbye letter to THC2 and accepted my new corporation.

And that is the story of my corporation change. I know that for some, changing corporations is like changing their shirt. For me, it was a large intense decision. My social group is my main point of contact in Eve. I could play alone but I perfer to play with the amazing people that I have come to know. And with that comes the good and the bad the positives and the negitives of others and of myself.

As always, thank you for reading and joining me on the journey that this blog has become. I hope you enjoy my application as much as 7-2 has.