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Dedication

I’ll always be with you

Goldspiracy Forums

Transcript #947

Original Golden Rule diary entry by Jewel Van Hanen

March 14, Year Three

Transcribed by SilentStar

ANNOUNCEMENT | Watch until the end.

Hi. Hello. I’ve been gone for a while, I know.

[sighs]

I needed to take some time to think about what I was doing here. What my goals were. How close I had gotten to achieving them before I began to grow complacent with the status quo.

A couple of days away from Golden Rule to clear my head turned into weeks turned into months, and now here we are one year later.

[pauses]

I created Golden Rule to be an escape—a safe place to revel in the minutiae and greatness of real life, not hide from it while hoping for something better. A place for authenticity and kindness and support. A place to plan and grow, to figure out what your best life would look like, and how to get there. A place for stories. Yours and mine.

This app saved me, and I know it saved a lot of you too. It organically grew into something so beautiful I almost couldn’t believe it. Everything Golden Rule became absolutely exceeded my wildest dreams. I genuinely thought moving beyond the screen, inviting some of you to my estate for Golden Weekend, was the natural next step.

There is always a price for getting everything you want.

[audio distortion/unacknowledged by subtitles]

While I was away, my app continued to thrive and evolve without me. A few new users broke engagement records that were never supposed to exist. Golden Rule stopped being a community and became a glorified popularity contest.

While I was away, I spent a lot of time thinking about the nature of expectations. Our lives follow patterns. We seek the familiar, and our brains make sense of it. It transforms what we see into something recognizable and digestible, even if that’s not what it really is. It’s comforting to know how something will go, how it will end. Everybody loves watching a train wreck because it’s a guaranteed release. You see it coming, and then you see it burning.

[audio distortion/unacknowledged by subtitles]

I wasn’t ever going to come back.

And then a very precious bespectacled beauty said to me, “Are you really going to leave without saying goodbye? You? Jewel Van Hanen?”

Me. Jewel Van Hanen.

[pauses and smiles]

Did you know today is White Day? Shall I give you chocolates, or would you like something much, much sweeter?

[pauses]