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Your Unexpected Successes!


by indulgences

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I took a brief 6-month hiatus from Neopets a few years ago, and was glad to come back to Neopets after getting my real life affairs in order. What I discovered was that, upon rifling through my five accounts, I had a lot of pets I didn't really love (or even remember, really!), and decided to give away several of them. I had a lot of fun selecting their new owners, and even now, I check the pets to see how they've been customized to the nines!

I also realized that I was truly satisfied with my unconverted Faerie Pteri, and had no desire to trade pets anymore. Don't get me wrong, if someone randomly offers me an unconverted pet for free, I'm not going to turn them down. But as for actual pet trading, I don't have the energy anymore. I think I'm perfectly satisfied with my one beautiful Pteri!

And recently, I was gifted a Chocolate Draik, my favorite converted pet. Now that I own a Chocolate Draik of my very own, I no longer want other converted pets! I had a list of around a dozen converted pets that I wanted, but ended up crumpling it and throwing it away. My Chocolate Draik is truly a dream come true!

So basically, I've unexpectedly realized that I am satisfied with all I have! I've gotten all the avatars that are humanly possible for me (the only ones I'm missing are game avatars for games that I'm horrible at playing), and I love my remaining pets with a fierceness that just won't quit. My favorite hobby on here, zapping pets with the Secret Laboratory Ray and giving them away to loving new owners, has almost reached its first milestone of 100 pets given away. (Right now, I'm at 91.)

Curious about the ways in which my fellow Neopians became unexpectedly content with all that they've accomplished, I decided to head on over to the Neoboards and ask them, "When did your ambitions finally give way to contentment?" I got many interesting replies!

One player that I spoke to admitted that she used to scrimp and save like a madman, then took a 3-month hiatus. When she came back, she realized that she had enough Neopoints to live comfortably, and had no desire to restock anymore. What a reality check! She's happy with the 2 million Neopoints she has in the bank, and she's truly content to just chat on the Neoboards with her favorite players.

After she posted, a lot of other players piped up to agree! They declared that after brief hiatuses from the site, they came back and were content with their bank accounts, no matter how small they were. They admitted that the social aspect of Neopets (namely, the Neoboards) is what brings them back day after day, not their bank account.

Many players were like me, and upon achieving a dream pet, lost all their ambition to get more pets. For instance, one lucky player got an unconverted pet that was up for adoption, and erased her petpage of dream converted pets. Now that she has an unconverted Faerie Lenny, the idea of having a converted Royalgirl Cybunny no longer has the same allure!

Many people claimed that, upon achieving famous and difficult avatars such as "Super Attack Pea!" and "MSPP," their avatar ambitions took a nosedive, and they were content with the avatars they already had. Never mind that there were a lot of easy avatars that they still needed to accomplish, such as "Soup Faerie" and "Slorg." These players said that achieving difficult avatars filled them with pride and satisfaction, and they became unexpectedly content with their avatar collection and felt no need to accomplish more (even though the easy ones are mere "clickables," avatars that are gotten with one click, such as viewing a pet's user lookup).

One of the players I spoke to said that she always uses a long-retired avatar from an old Neopets war, because it's rare and valuable and cannot be gotten anymore. She considers this to be an unexpected asset, since she never realized the avatar would be so covetable in later years. I have to admit, I stared at her avatar in honest worship, and crossed my fingers that future avatars will have that same level of artistry!

One person bashfully admitted that she loves to be recognized on the Help Neoboard as someone who is kind, sweet and helpful. She recently received fan mail from a fellow Neopets player, thanking her for her generosity and willingness to help others, and she considers this to be an unexpected success, especially since her account is only 10 months old. She never intended to be Neo-famous, but famous she is, in the best and most delightful way possible!

A lot of players told me that they used to train their pets like crazy, but as soon as the pet could fight against the Koi Warrior in the Battledome and win, they no longer trained their pets. All the players really want are the 15 daily prizes that the Battledome gives out every day, so having an impressively statted pet isn't really necessary. They're content with their pets' stats being the bare minimum!

I have more clothes in my closet than I know what to do with, and even though I was thrilled to get Stealthy Kacheek clothes for my lab rat after a really lucky zap, I know that my pet will change species someday and won't be able to wear the Stealthy clothes anymore. I used to be ambitious about collecting as many Paint Brush clothes as possible for my pet, but now I'm content with the times it's just a basic Eyrie or basic Grarrl. Now I try to give away my extra clothes to the players who want them. I'm content with my pets' stats, and a good battle pet is all I ever really wanted!

The ultimate example of how ambitions can give way to contentment was found on the Pound Neoboard, where there were multiple people volunteering to use their Fountain Faerie Quests to create other peoples' dream pets for free. Having accomplished all of their own pet goals, they are now eager to fulfill other peoples' dreams. I admired these people very much for their generosity!

I love the fact that even when our goals and ambitions decrease, we still love this site! Our goal-oriented minds change so that we're appreciative of everything we've already accomplished. There's really no wrong way to look at this site! Ambitious? Awesome! Content with your account? Even more awesome! (Congrats on achieving Neopets nirvana!)

Thanks for reading this article, my fellow Neopians! Talking to you on the Neoboards is the highlight of my Neopets day, and I love to pick your brains. I'm thinking of writing a second article all about the goals we have that are never-ending, like customizing our pets (always an ongoing project!) or upping our bank accounts (bah, since when is 100 million enough?). What goals are we simply ravenous to work on? I'd love to know your opinions, so feel free to Neomail me!

Stay tuned for more articles from yours truly, dear readers, and have an amazing week!

 
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