That Epic Hunter

We've had a couple of new members lately coming from other guilds, since we are part of the top raidguilds on our server (8th of over 70, 6th when just looking at Alliance) we get more and more applies streaming in. Not just for openings but just random applies aswell.
As now and then a member quits the game or decides to go a more casual way we do need to recruit fresh raiders so now and then a new soul enters guildchat. Which made me think of saying goodbye.

I'm a pretty faithfull guy, think my girlfriend appreciates as well but i was actually refering to my guild. However i wasn't always in my current guild, the guild before this one was the one i joined in the open beta and i sticked with them for the next year and a half.
In that time i made it from regular noob to appreciated member to Raidleader to Councillor but there was simply too much to do as an officer which really killed my fun in the game. I feel i've gone great lengths to help my guildies as much as i could but i just had to step away from it all to not drive myself mental at a certain point. As i knew i would still get involved if i simply stepped down to being a regular member i decided to quit the guild.
I did have a place to go tho as i had build up some connections with other players in a different guild... when the majority of that guild split of to build their own Utopia (actually the name of the new guild) i decided to join this friendly bunch and try to find back the fun in Wow.
Raidwise they were on par so i didn't need to skip any content.
Anyway quiting my first guild quite pained me.. i even stayed around a week after announcing my leave to wrap up things and lead some more raids till everything was carried over to a couple of fresh officers. Most weren't happy with me leaving and a couple even held a grudge to me for that.
For a long time i tried to keep in touch with the members in this guild but after a while just too much had changed and nowadays it's just not the guild i helped build anymore, not worse tho... just different and filled with loads of people i simply do not know, most of the people i leveled with have joined other guilds, quit the game, rerolled horde or left the server.

The guild Utopía i joined was reformed when TBC arrived to set things straight so we would be ready to become more raidorientated, the new name became Elysium which i am still a part of. Throughout the last two years we even recruited a bunch of people from different guilds who where original in my first guild and with who i leveled up or raided Molten Core with for the first year, mostly old officers like me now i think of it.

One of the first runs i did with my new guild was Zul'Gurub and while i was in one party, a friend who came along to the new guild was in an other. There was a Hunter in his party who asked the others in his party "Who is this Epic Hunter?" refering to me as my gear was pretty good at that time.. not much people had full Giantstalker and the Rhok (apart from the 2 top raidguilds who were enjoying themselves in BWL) so i guess i made an impression. Still makes me smile.

I'm still glad up untill this day that i made the hard choice to say goodbye and became part of this fine guild, change can be good.
Just make sure you have a good place to go before splitting on your old guild and try to leave in good order, you never know when you might want to go back ;)