I had to make this decision in Wrath--which was a long time, considering I had been with the game from mid to late Vanilla. I will, in advance, apologize profusely for the undeniable wall of text that is about to ensue.

Here's the thing: up until Wrath, I had never been in a guild that didn't have less than a 150 people. All the guilds I had been in were large, and they were all leveling guilds. People came and went all the time in every guild I had been in. As a result of the size of these guilds, I never really knew anyone, and no one really knew me. Guilds had a tendency at that size not to do much together, except house characters who could help each other level.

But then Wrath happened. Again I was in a leveling guild, but unlike all the times before I was actually leveling further on a character than I ever had before. The desire to hit the level cap and raid was strong for me at the time. But for the life of me, I don't remember why.

This was the beginning of my turning point: a lone, AFK, night elf hunter at a meeting stone. At this time, I was just entering Dragonblight after going through Borean Tundra on my night elf druid, who was scraping along, looking for quests. I had dropped into a nerubian pit to pick up a few when I saw the night elf hunter begin to get assaulted by an undead warlock. I was a feral druid, spec'd for tanking, but I had been stealthed at the time, and it was a PvE realm. At that second, I had to make a decision--to help that AFK hunter, or ignore the situation.

Tanking instinct roared to life and I chose vengeance. The fight ended almost as quickly as it had began. I stood triumphant. The warlock used his soulstone and made for the exit. I didn't pursue--I chose to stay and defend the hunter, but no one else came for him. Just as I was about to leave with my quests I saw the AFK flag move from his head, and he thanked me for the save. He then inquired if I was, by chance, a tank, and if I would be interested in doing Azjol'Nerub. I had just picked up the dungeon quests so I agreed.

Everything from that point changed. My game time in WoW was forever altered. From that moment on, I did dungeons with that hunter. Soon I did them with him and his wife, and then his guild-mates. When we finally reached the harder level 80 heroics and began running Utgarde Pinnacle did I get invited to vent. It took me a while, but eventually I got Ventrillo (my first time) and surprised them by jumping into their server and saying hello.

Later that dungeon run, my turning point came.
We killed Skadi, and the drake dropped. Everyone rolled for it, and miraculously, I obtained the drake (despite, at the time, any of us being able to use it). Vent had lit up something magical--the cheers and the gasps and the exclamations of congratulations for me were some of the most joy-filled sounds I had ever heard in my life. It was at that point I realized I had actually made friends, for perhaps the first time--and not just in-game. These were real people who cared about me and valued the time they spent with me.

I then got an invitation that at the time took no thought or effort to digest. It was the single easiest decision of my living life--if I would be willing to part ways with my leveling guild and join their ranks as casual dungeon runners. Of course, I accepted--in a heart-beat. I cannot describe the joy I had on that day, but I will say that it was a grand day, and possibly some of the best fun I have ever had.

From there our adventures grew--the little dungeon guild evolved, and over time we got into raiding during ToC's emergence. We partnered with another guild, and even went on to ICC, becoming the second on the realm to kill Sindragossa and reach the Lich King.
The guild had a falling out then, but the bottom line I'm trying to get across is that I was able to break my mold of leveling guilds into raiding and beyond, and it had all started... with a hunter at a meeting stone. And wherever he is now, I would like to call out to him and thank him. Thank him for everything he did for me.

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