I think I manage not to let chess rule my life - just! 
I have been playing since I was five years old, but I pretty much gave up for a few years between 15 and 18 whilst I sat my exams. I didn't play much while I was a university student either, so I think life has always taken precedence over the 64 squares for me.
I would like to know what happened to chessiq and Vernon ! Have they become GMs or decide to quit?
Is resurrecting these old threads your new hobby?
Just getting curious! May be there is something in it for me to learn!
I think Mr. Chessiq and Mr. Vernon have quit Chess!
Seven years ago,Mr.Chessq and Mr. Vernon were crazy about Chess. Now there is no word from them. I think it is worthy of contemplation by all of us! There is a lesson in this for all of us,I.e Chess crazy players! May be moderation is the key. But I must admit that for people like me, Chess is addictive!
I would like to read the comments of senior chess.com members in this thread! It will be of immense help to all Chess aspirants!
Chess is a horrible time-killer, eating my life away, but I'm addicted. On the good side, there are *many* valuable lessons you can learn about life from chess. Ideally somebody would document just that wisdom for us so we each wouldn't have to relearn those lessons from scratch at great total cost of time. Once I was going to document the real-life wisdom I learned through chess, via submissions to a college newspaper, but I never got around to it.
You know the expression, "Penny-wise, Pound-foolish"? Well, how about, Chess-wise, Life-foolish!? For a period of at about 10 years, I focused my life on nothing but Chess. I almost flunked in school, but I was a Chess champ. To be my friend, you had to be a Chess player. To enjoy conversation, it had to be about Chess. I think that was "Chess-wise, Life-foolish!"
How about you? Have you been "Chess-wise, Life-foolish?" or has Chess helped you become Life-wise?!