Checkpoint entered into the second official year on the Internet back in August, bringing notifications on social media to look 'back on this day in history.' Seeing things that we were doing a year ago is all at once eerie and exciting. It doesn't feel that we've existed that long. It's exciting that we've had enough of our past behind us that we have a history at all. What I've found through these flashbacks is that there are three reactions we can have to these 'things we used to do.'
To the more cringe-inducing things, my initial reaction is to erase as quickly as possible. Get that bad juju out of here. Sometimes this is necessary, but we often have a trigger finger that causes us to erase something in our past that is essential to who we have become today. Where would we be without those initial podcast episodes of BabbleOn and Chatpoint? They established our culture. They introduced me to you. They may very well have been your first thing that you experienced at Checkpoint.
For these vital things that are better left in the past, I think the best thing to do is to encase them. By this I mean to treat them like monuments at a museum. These things that built us are important parts of the lifeblood, but they don't fit the program any longer. They should be kept. Honored. But distinctly separate from the now.
But then there are things that we are still doing today - these things that are better than ever. Our Discord community and our Question of the Day; these were both slow to start, but many of our members wouldn't feel right without answering that question every day at 8:30am EST. These are the things that we have embraced. They built us and are continuing to build us. If need be, we will encase them when their 'best by' date arrives, but for now we are holding on tight in grateful affection for the culture we are creating day-by-day.