Happy fandom anniversary to me!
May. 3rd, 2025 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gothikmausA post I saw on Tumblr today made me realise I've been in fandom for 25 years. TWENTY. FIVE. YEARS. More than half of my life. I don't remember the exact date, but it all started in spring of the year 2000. I know because I read my very first slash fanfic in the university computer lab while I was searching for Cure stuff. Bloodflowers had just come out and I was obsessed with The Cure, and while I was browsing fansites looking for photos, I stumbled upon one that hosted fanfiction. And my life changed forever.
It's something I've already written about, but if I hadn't clicked on that link, a lot would be different in my life. And it's not just the fact that I started writing fanfiction and went back to drawing: fandom was behind some pretty important things I did, like moving to Berlin, or attending a summer workshop at UCLA. Maybe I would still have found fandom one way or another, but things would be different. I wouldn't have got into the same fandoms at the same time I did, I wouldn't have met the same people, wouldn't have made the same choices. It's the butterfly effect.
Anyway, I got a little nostalgic thinking about what a huge impact fandom, and especially fanfiction, had (and still has) on my life. Sometimes I think there must be something wrong with me, because "normal people" don't spend their time making up more or less elaborate scenarios about their favourite characters over and over. But I really couldn't imagine my life without fandom. And even if one day I stop writing and drawing, fandom will always be a big part of me, a part that helped me through some really tough times, so I'll always be grateful to it and to that fateful day in the uni computer lab.
It's something I've already written about, but if I hadn't clicked on that link, a lot would be different in my life. And it's not just the fact that I started writing fanfiction and went back to drawing: fandom was behind some pretty important things I did, like moving to Berlin, or attending a summer workshop at UCLA. Maybe I would still have found fandom one way or another, but things would be different. I wouldn't have got into the same fandoms at the same time I did, I wouldn't have met the same people, wouldn't have made the same choices. It's the butterfly effect.
Anyway, I got a little nostalgic thinking about what a huge impact fandom, and especially fanfiction, had (and still has) on my life. Sometimes I think there must be something wrong with me, because "normal people" don't spend their time making up more or less elaborate scenarios about their favourite characters over and over. But I really couldn't imagine my life without fandom. And even if one day I stop writing and drawing, fandom will always be a big part of me, a part that helped me through some really tough times, so I'll always be grateful to it and to that fateful day in the uni computer lab.
