Hi, Devon. I decided I'd node from the future to let you in on a few things that are going to change once you get to where I (you) am (are) now (then). Today is your first day at E2, and you still haven't read either the Everything FAQ or Everything University. But you will. I was there.
Firstly, don't worry about getting nodes nuked, man. You'll do just fine. As a matter of fact, you will end up asking for the nukes yourself. Weird how that works, eh? I just wanted to tell you about a few things that will happen in the future. In no order of importance:
Gritchka (who will be your first C!, I believe) will be made a god. You will approve of this much. He's a good writer, capable of making you flounder for words and making your own meagre writings seem like dried, crusty dogshit by comparison. But still, you will be impressed by HOW BADLY HE CAN FUCK YOUR HEAD UP BY USING WORDS THAT DON'T REALLY EXIST IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, JUST IN HIS STRANGE HEAD. As far as other noders go, you will get to know panamaus, and even talk to him on the telephone. He will be made an editor, and then a god, and you will approve of both these choices as well. About a month ago (your time) a noder named jaubertmoniker showed up, but you don't know that. You will become close friends with him, call him by his real name, and laugh at his AOL humour. You'll even invite people you know and love to this place. They won't pull an Asamoth, but they won't stay--and that's fine. At least they're part of something, like you are.
You will never know, meet, or speak to sensei, but you will wish you had.
I know you're impressed now by Pseudo_Intellectual, but don't let it go to your head too much: later, you'll meet him in person, share a meal with him, and allow him to pass out on your loveseat. Also, he will play the Bubble Bobble theme on the piano, causing you to laugh a genuinely happy laugh.
About seven months from now, the world trade center will fall. When you see it on the news, shortly after waking up, you will laugh a crazy laugh, and think it's fake. Then you will join your fellows in #everything and cry. But you won't tell anyone. You don't tell them because you're not sure why you're crying. This will happen one day after a friend, someone you knew, will die. You don't know why you cry for that, either. It will take you a long, long time to figure it all out.
You will eventually become confident in your writing skills, and noders will notice you. They will pepper you with praise and kill you with criticism. After a time, you will forget how it hurts to have your incredibly amazing writings ragged on, and you will--after a time--be able to realize that you are a good writer, but not the world's best. Slowly, it will dawn on you that you are getting better at writing.
Despite your loneliness right now--in the next few weeks you'll receive advice from people who just don't seem to care about you, because they don't--you will make fine friends, people who, while you probably wouldn't take a bullet for them, you would most definitely drink malt liquor with. You will learn that nothing is more important than laughter in this place.
You'll get to know dannye just enough to know that he enjoys this place, doesn't fear change and doesn't want anyone to shit on the floor.
You will learn that everything is a family. You will learn that everything is a community. You will fall in love with words and text and screens and bits and bytes. Don't let it get you down; I know you're not there yet, but you will be.
You will open your life up for the people here and they may not love you for it. Maybe they will. But you will love yourself for it.
You will nuke your own XP and your own writeups. You will replace your XP and writeups with worthy copies. You'll see the whole site change with every week that passes. New features will be added, and you will love them all. Controversial writeups will come and go. great noders will leave and the youth will take their place.
Anyway, I was just writing to set your mind at ease a little bit. Take care of yourself, man. You've got a long way to go, but you'll get there.
I'll see you soon.