#kricken

12:57 a.m. September 3rd 2018

Hey Barnard, do you remember that one Jenna Marble’s Draw My Life video that you watched where she listed a bunch of OG Yotubers who were in their PRIME. Some of the names listed were iJustine, TimothyDeLaGhetto, Glozell Green, and DailyGrace. Eventually you got sucked into a hole of hundreds of DailyGrace videos where she would post every single day (except for weekends) and she had a small apartment in New York and made funny cooking videos and UGH they were so funny for your 12/13 year old little mind. Then eventually she mentioned Joey Graceffa in some shape or form and the first video you watched of his was some daily vlog where he was riding on a horse with a British man, and you found the first YouTuber you REALLY loved. It wasn’t just binge-watching, it was friendship. It may sound weird but 7th grade you loved watching Joey Graceffa, and you really felt a connection with his blue walls, green eyes, and occasional emo hair. The hair in which he eventually left in his early 20′s. Then you started watching his gaming channel and your brother already liked Minecraft so why couldn’t you have given it a try? Joey had a series with Stacy Hinojosa called Hungercraft where she would say “I Died!” in almost every episode while their chests were being compromised. It’s was cathartic. Watching them banter and laugh was the best. Then, STACY made her own channel and IT WAS EVEN BETTER!! She posted her side of Hungercraft and eventually joined The Cube which would kick start her very prosperous career. Ah the Cube, the place where a bunch of teenagers would go to play Minecraft. (pre-1.9) (maybe even pre-1.6!) They weren’t all teenagers, there were olders teens and young adults, newly-aged twenty-somethings. And it was every kids dream to be apart of something like that. One of those kids being you of course. Just some people who could play Minecraft together, Bayani, NoBoom, Kricken, HeyImBee, Devon_Games, Parker_Plays, ThatOneTomaHawk, GrapeAppleSauce, TheCampingRusher, StrauberryJam, Graser10, HBomb94, Kingtong, and probably more you’re forgetting. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Because with every group of late-teens/early-twenties people, came DRAMAAA. I was literally 12 turning 14 at the time so of course I don’t remember it but there was drama with Kricken being seen as slutty, StacyPlays being seen as snobby, Bayani and Straub lying to other members, and general tiny fights happening all over. It was like a smaller more highscool-ish Team Crafted. REMEMBER TEAM CRAFTED AND TRUEMU???? The Cube wan’t a solid amazing group of friends, it was a classroom full of people that had different views and would take it to Twitter. I miss being 13 and playing Minecraft and watching YouTube videos. Even though I could make a whole other letter about just YouTube vlogs and all that, but Minecraft was a big part of it. These YouTubers changed my life. Yes I still watch Graser and Will and Shelby and H, but The Cube specifically was a moment in time I’ll never get back.