Furry Fiesta and my enterance into the fandom
And it looks like I am going! First con in a long time.... Lately I have been remembering about all the old conventions I used to go to and all the crazy wild times I had. I remember people I used to know and who long forgot about me. I think that is a good thing. I wasn't really the person I wanted to be back then. I was so lost and confused. I so desperately wanted friends, but didn't really know how to be a good one myself to anyone. I so desperately wanted to fall in love and have a great boyfriend, but back then, I didn't know how a good relationship was suppose to work. I think I hurt or offended a lot of people by just not knowing the right social graces.
I grew up in San Jose, California. I miss being right there on the cutting edge of everything. It seems so normal. I started to attend a science fiction convention called Bay Con when I was 16 years old, and I went for several years. I met some fantastic people and a few celebrities. From there I attended other science fiction and fantasy conventions. I attended a few SCA events and Renaissance fairs. I attached myself to a Danish guild for a little while. I did have a friend named Brian that first showed me some furry art. I thought it was a strange that a grown man would be interested in animal cartoons. At first it kind-a freaked me out, but then thought nothing of it .I never paid much attention to the furries until I got slam dunked into it. Ashi and thechick told me about a start up convention called Further Confusion. Most of the gamer type folks I hung around were going. They told me it was an animal convention. I ran around in a pair of bunnies ears. So I guess I really started off as a rabbit. I remember all the things that went wrong, and being kinda confused about the crowd who attended. For me it was mostly like other conventions I attended.. strangely exciting and super weird. Weird and different was my normal.
It is not that my life was too exciting but definitely different then most have out there. Life among geeks and furries is never normal. Not even close. Because my social graces lacked a lot of fine tuning, I never was able to stay with any one group to long. I had a hard time relating to different people. Although I found the people I associated with interesting, I had a real hard time adjusting to accepting alternative lifestyles. I grew up in a morally conservative home with heterosexual views. However, Bay Area California fandoms were anything but normal. I met people who crossed dressed, wanted to transgender, were polygamous, who practiced BDSM, practiced Wicca and other alternative religions, were guy, and bi-sexual and one person even had a relationship with a personality inside a person with multiple personalities. ( yes I totally had difficulties understanding exactly how that worked). At every turn, everyone seem to live a rather bizarre lifestyle. Many times I really did not know what to make of it all or really how to react.
I was still searching for a group I belonged to. I felt incredibly lonely inside. The bulliton board (BBS) meets were drawing to a close as the internet started to form and grow. I learned about the Furries and the weekly coffee meets, The meets reminded me of the BBS gatherings and in fact had some of the very same people attending. There is a lot of crossovers in the fandom. There, among mostly gay men of all things, I found relative acceptance. Here I was, a young heterosexual girl, hanging out with mostly gay and bisexual men who were interested in anthropomorphic animals. It was normal for me to out to dinner with 20 men and me being the only girl much of the time. However, for whatever reason, I wasn't picked on, made fun of too much, and kinda accepted. I had a ton of adventures. Trips to others conventions, hikes in the mountains, parties to attend, and social gathering to be apart of.
It would be 10 years later that I finally bought my two fursuits and found the extreme joy suiting can bring. I don't really have much contact with those strange California furries and convention attenders, but I am thankful for the times I spend there, and the acceptance that was extended to me. It make me much softer around the edges and increased both my acceptance and awareness to lifestyles that different greatly from my own.
I grew up in San Jose, California. I miss being right there on the cutting edge of everything. It seems so normal. I started to attend a science fiction convention called Bay Con when I was 16 years old, and I went for several years. I met some fantastic people and a few celebrities. From there I attended other science fiction and fantasy conventions. I attended a few SCA events and Renaissance fairs. I attached myself to a Danish guild for a little while. I did have a friend named Brian that first showed me some furry art. I thought it was a strange that a grown man would be interested in animal cartoons. At first it kind-a freaked me out, but then thought nothing of it .I never paid much attention to the furries until I got slam dunked into it. Ashi and thechick told me about a start up convention called Further Confusion. Most of the gamer type folks I hung around were going. They told me it was an animal convention. I ran around in a pair of bunnies ears. So I guess I really started off as a rabbit. I remember all the things that went wrong, and being kinda confused about the crowd who attended. For me it was mostly like other conventions I attended.. strangely exciting and super weird. Weird and different was my normal.
It is not that my life was too exciting but definitely different then most have out there. Life among geeks and furries is never normal. Not even close. Because my social graces lacked a lot of fine tuning, I never was able to stay with any one group to long. I had a hard time relating to different people. Although I found the people I associated with interesting, I had a real hard time adjusting to accepting alternative lifestyles. I grew up in a morally conservative home with heterosexual views. However, Bay Area California fandoms were anything but normal. I met people who crossed dressed, wanted to transgender, were polygamous, who practiced BDSM, practiced Wicca and other alternative religions, were guy, and bi-sexual and one person even had a relationship with a personality inside a person with multiple personalities. ( yes I totally had difficulties understanding exactly how that worked). At every turn, everyone seem to live a rather bizarre lifestyle. Many times I really did not know what to make of it all or really how to react.
I was still searching for a group I belonged to. I felt incredibly lonely inside. The bulliton board (BBS) meets were drawing to a close as the internet started to form and grow. I learned about the Furries and the weekly coffee meets, The meets reminded me of the BBS gatherings and in fact had some of the very same people attending. There is a lot of crossovers in the fandom. There, among mostly gay men of all things, I found relative acceptance. Here I was, a young heterosexual girl, hanging out with mostly gay and bisexual men who were interested in anthropomorphic animals. It was normal for me to out to dinner with 20 men and me being the only girl much of the time. However, for whatever reason, I wasn't picked on, made fun of too much, and kinda accepted. I had a ton of adventures. Trips to others conventions, hikes in the mountains, parties to attend, and social gathering to be apart of.
It would be 10 years later that I finally bought my two fursuits and found the extreme joy suiting can bring. I don't really have much contact with those strange California furries and convention attenders, but I am thankful for the times I spend there, and the acceptance that was extended to me. It make me much softer around the edges and increased both my acceptance and awareness to lifestyles that different greatly from my own.