Fandom Snowflake Challenge Two
Challenge Two: Origin Story
Gather around the fire as I regale you with tales of days of yore. The year was aught six and my life was about to change A LOT.
Before that, I was weird and obsessive about things, but only in my mind because I was the only one who thought like I did about the things I thought them about, right? I mean, obviously. As a wee one, while everyone was talking about Star Wars and Jedi and the Empire, light and dark and the politics and world building, no one was talking about the only thing that mattered to me. Han and Chewie.
Then when I was 12, I found The Outsiders and that changed my life and I had no outlet to pour into, no community to share stories and feelings and it all just sat in my heart for a very long time. When I think what I would have done if I'd known about fandom back then... if there had been a fandom for things back then.
I was a bit like that with My Own Private Idaho too... and River Phoenix in general. In fact, one of the first things I ever wrote before I even knew what fanfic was, before I ever knew what RPF was, a Mary Sue-ish, dream like thing that I embarrassingly gifted to a friend who I hope never read it. Years later, I'd change it up a bit here for my only RPF that I'll claim as my own.
There was music and musicians I obsessed with too--Dylan, Pearl Jam and some other bands that never made it out of Seattle proper.
Then I started reading Harry Potter to the littles in my care. I resisted--we resisted, but peer pressure is real and it truly was perfect timing as the oldest was herself 11. We started after Goblet of Fire and we actually tried to start with that one. Didn't work. It was half way through PoA that I started reading it while the littles were at school and at night in my room. I remember finishing that one and sneaking down stairs for the next one and reading it all throughout the night. That was NOT a short book. I just couldn't stop.
And I had no one to talk to it about. Well, the littles of course, and we did, as we listened to the audio books--after I've finished reading them--every day to and from school. We talked about theories and what we supposed would happen when the next one, the one after that and finally the last one came out.
It was when the third movie came out that I found out about fandom by meeting a woman who was in it. At first, I thought that I couldn't really get into sharing my thoughts and feelings with others because mine were ~unique~ and I was weird. HAHAHAHA! Don't we all feel that way? And isn't it amazing to realize we are just as weird--and oddly still unique--as everyone else? She talked me into going to a Harry Potter con in New Orleans. I wasn't sure, I didn't know anyone, didn't know any of the lingo--what's your lj username? Who is your OTP? I had no idea. But, I met a lot of people who actually thought like I did about the things I thought about.
Life was never the same.
There's more, of course, much more. But that's where it all began. And that's where I'll stop for now.