Snowflake Challenge Day 11

[kate]

Day 11

Share a book/song/movie/tv show/fanwork/etc that changed your life.

Well. I'd have to say Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I started watching it immediately when it came out, but I broke up with my bf (he was the one that wanted to watch it) and then moved cross country (twice) and picked it up again in season 5, right after my brother moved in with me at my mom's house. The episode? The Body. OUCH. And when the season ended I was DEVASTATED. My dad had bought a computer so I was on the internet ALL THE TIME looking for... I didn't even know what.

I didn't know at the time, but it was fandom. I was looking for fandom. And I found it. I had dabbled in fandom a little after The Mummy. I had basically inhaled everything Brendan Fraser ever did and found a mailing list with people who loved him and... tried... to form friendships. I emailed with a couple of people who shared my squee, but it was awkward and not fun and I wasn't super good at it. Plus my bf (yeah, the Buffy one) looked down on it (internet friends aren't REAL friends) and just... I never quite got it. I did write my first official piece of fanfic, and won a prize - a piece of actual film from The Mummy. I don't have the fic or the piece of film anymore.

But anyway - I wasn't wholeheartedly in the Brendan Fraser fandom (is it really a fandom? I have my doubts about this) and I fell out of it and didn't keep in touch with anyone and just generally was like... not broken up about it.

Buffy, I started looking for fic, and found a mailing list, and made some online friends, and... holy shit, they were real friends. We talked about meeting up IRL, and... WE. DID. IT. I met up with... I dunno, like, eight? "Strangers" from the internet. At one of their apartments in California. I couldn't even believe it. And I visited them several more times over the years - including once in London (yes, one of the girls was from London!). So that was, I think, my introduction to fandom dynamics and the shift from online to IRL and the ways fandom could bridge that, and I will forever be grateful for that, because several fandoms down the line, it brought me my wife, and several friends that I am absolutely certain will be life-long, and I have met many, MANY fans IRL now and nearly every experience has been brilliant. So thanks, Buffy. It's been real.

Comments

[meridian_rose]

Oh yes internet friends are real friends! Thanks for sharing this :)

[kate]

Yes they are! And I'm glad you enjoyed it! I love talking about people's fannish history.

[jadesfire]

That's such an awesome story. Finding your tribe is a great and awesome thing :)

[kate]

Thank you, and yes it is!

[sperrywink]

Awesome story! I love how fandom friends can become lifelong friends and we can share our squee together.

I started watching Buffy in season 4 or 5 when I moved to Pennsylvania and my BFF and her husband watched it.

[kate]

Thank you! And yeah, I love fannish friends, toooooooooo!

[spikedluv]

I was nodding like crazy at your comment about realizing that online friendships could bridge fandom and RL.

I love hearing about people who found Buffy (or *insert source material of choice*) and just wanted ~more. So they turned to the internet and discovered fandom and friendships that have made their lives richer.

[kate]

Thank you!

I have always had the gene for fandom, I think - I've always created stories around it, from age 5 onward, and it was Buffy that finally hooked me up with likeminded folks!

[dragonyphoenix]

Aw, that's awesome!

[kate]

It is, thank you!

[silveradept]

That's a great story. I'm glad things worked out for you, and that you get to tell it now. When I was in the finding fandom phase, there would have been three hundred stories about the person who went to see their Internet "friend", only to become the largest victim of a serial killer that targeted lonely people online.