Until that steam engine to Hogwarts arrives
If you'll allow me, I'd like to rant a little bit. Feel free to skip over this, you won't hurt my feelings.
I don't understand why people who love fandom are considered to be freaks. Why am I an oddity for finding my friends through online communities dedicated to my favorite shows or books? How is that different from a book club or a sewing circle? Why would I be considered a loser for playing an tabletop RPG on the weekends with my friends, either in person or online? How is that different from a local softball team or a weekly poker match? Why am I such a freak for spending a week at a sci-fi convention with some seriously awesome people, when it's perfectly acceptable for someone else to spend a week in Vegas getting smashed and having anonymous sex? Why am I a weirdo for preferring to spend my weekends having a DVD marathon of one of my favorite shows rather than trolling the bars looking for hookups?
And what's a bigger sign of my inner geek than the fact that I spend the majority of my free time living in a fantasy world of my own making? It's fast becoming my favorite place to be, and what the hell is wrong with that? It's my sandbox and I get to make the rules there. Magic is real, and so are monsters, curses, demons and all other kind of fantastical things. This world is boring and monotonous compared to that one.
I don't understand why these things that make me happy also brand me as "other" as not normal. I work with some of these "normal" people, and they don't seem happier or more well-adjusted than me. I'll keep my freak label, thanks, if that's the price I have to pay for the times I've had and the friends I've made.
One of the best friends I made in college I made thanks to fandom. Sure, we were already in the same sorority, but she was a new pledge and we'd never spoken. Until one day, at an event, I saw over her shoulder that the banner on her cell said H/D FOREVER and I immediately told her I thought Harry and Draco were made for each other, and we became fast friends after that.
The first friend I made at OU was lexsara, and that was also thanks to fandom. Someone else's Jayne shirt got us talking TV, and when I complained that my aunt and uncle's house didn't get Sci-Fi so I'd be unable to watch Battlestar Galactica, lexsara offered to have me over on Fridays to watch TV. Her mistake, she never got rid of my after that, I was over at her apartment at least two night a week to watch TV and eat greasy calzones from DP's.
One of the highlights from my trip to California a few years ago was discovering that the hostel we were staying at in Torrence was right around the corner from the high school where they filmed Buffy. I thought I'd never have a trip as amazing and fun as that one, until my trip to Toronto.
So everybody who wants to call us freaks? Let 'em. They don't know what they're missing.
I don't understand why people who love fandom are considered to be freaks. Why am I an oddity for finding my friends through online communities dedicated to my favorite shows or books? How is that different from a book club or a sewing circle? Why would I be considered a loser for playing an tabletop RPG on the weekends with my friends, either in person or online? How is that different from a local softball team or a weekly poker match? Why am I such a freak for spending a week at a sci-fi convention with some seriously awesome people, when it's perfectly acceptable for someone else to spend a week in Vegas getting smashed and having anonymous sex? Why am I a weirdo for preferring to spend my weekends having a DVD marathon of one of my favorite shows rather than trolling the bars looking for hookups?
And what's a bigger sign of my inner geek than the fact that I spend the majority of my free time living in a fantasy world of my own making? It's fast becoming my favorite place to be, and what the hell is wrong with that? It's my sandbox and I get to make the rules there. Magic is real, and so are monsters, curses, demons and all other kind of fantastical things. This world is boring and monotonous compared to that one.
I don't understand why these things that make me happy also brand me as "other" as not normal. I work with some of these "normal" people, and they don't seem happier or more well-adjusted than me. I'll keep my freak label, thanks, if that's the price I have to pay for the times I've had and the friends I've made.
One of the best friends I made in college I made thanks to fandom. Sure, we were already in the same sorority, but she was a new pledge and we'd never spoken. Until one day, at an event, I saw over her shoulder that the banner on her cell said H/D FOREVER and I immediately told her I thought Harry and Draco were made for each other, and we became fast friends after that.
The first friend I made at OU was lexsara, and that was also thanks to fandom. Someone else's Jayne shirt got us talking TV, and when I complained that my aunt and uncle's house didn't get Sci-Fi so I'd be unable to watch Battlestar Galactica, lexsara offered to have me over on Fridays to watch TV. Her mistake, she never got rid of my after that, I was over at her apartment at least two night a week to watch TV and eat greasy calzones from DP's.
One of the highlights from my trip to California a few years ago was discovering that the hostel we were staying at in Torrence was right around the corner from the high school where they filmed Buffy. I thought I'd never have a trip as amazing and fun as that one, until my trip to Toronto.
So everybody who wants to call us freaks? Let 'em. They don't know what they're missing.