Frienship Fair 2017 - Closing Address
All good things must come to an end, and alas, it is that time when the week's festivities come to a close. It is definitely true that there never seems to be enough time to do all the things we want to do, or say what we want to say, and perhaps that is true of this week's festival. But if that is so, let this week be a reminder that it's never too late to be with the ones you love, or to share your time with your friends. While this Friendship Fair may be ending, the ties that bind us continue onward into the future. Our regions remain connected, and whether we put ourselves in the same place to enjoy each other's company, or continue to be good neighbors and partners whenever we have a moment, the relationships we've cultivated will always remain. I hope that sentiment is true of TNP's friends as it relates to the other non-TNP regions that were here, just as much as I hope we reminded our own allies of why we went to the trouble of forming diplomatic partnerships in the first place.
Before I forget, congratulations to BluieGamer and Catalunya, for winning the short story and art competitions respectively. We appreciated all the submissions we received for these contests, as well as the contributions to our threads. Thank you for stopping by and brightening our day with your creativity, your wit, and your humor. There are a lot of talented and interesting people, there are wild and crazy people, there are kind and amazing and smart and unforgettable people, and we are so lucky to call you our friends. Please, don't be a stranger. Our forum and our Discord are open and we always like to see our friends add their own flavor to our daily dose of TNP. No man is an island, and no region can successfully remove itself from the rest of the game. To truly succeed, to truly find meaning and fully experience all this game has to offer, we need friends. They build us up, they challenge our assumptions and our biases, they teach us things we never knew, or show us a new way when we're curious or when we'e lost. TNP can be comfortable doing its own thing, and it's always nice to remember that no matter who or where you are, you're not alone, and no matter how wrapped up in our own world we can be, there is a world around us thriving and teeming with life and stories to tell.
I hope I can call this the first annual friendship fair, and begin looking forward to the next one. But even if this is the one and only, I hope that it bodes well for further engagement with not only our friends, but for others in the game as well. The world can be a lonely place and I hope that we never stop working on keeping the fire lit that we started all those years and months ago when we shook hands and decided to go on this NationStates journey together. Good night, good morning, and good luck my friends!
