A Mighty Fine Life

Today is my six-year fandomversary in the Newsies fandom. More or less.

It's actually the sixth anniversary of me posting my very first fic on FFnet, though I'd been lurking around for a few months at that point. Y'see, my sister was living in Japan at the time, and she sent me the movie as a gag gift for Chanukah -- a wacky, "Hey, remember how we used to have every line of this movie memorized and would sing the songs in the car? Ha ha, it's on DVD now, lol" present. (Very specific, I know.) So I watched it. And then I watched it again that same night. And then I went in search of fic.

Rachel, presumably, did not intend to give me a gag gift to Change My Life. And it sounds corny to put it that way. But it's more or less true. Consider:

Were it not for fandom, I would not know several of my closest friends. harmonyangel was the first person from the internet I ever met IRL, back in junior year of college. Shortly thereafter, I met poisonivory through the drabble community; we met IRL that summer. My life would not be the same place without my Lohrists. ♥ (And while I obviously didn't meet second_batgirl through fandom, since we met in college, that was a huge part of what we bonded over when we first became friends.) And those are just people who I now hang out with offline -- a huge percentage of my friends list is fandom-based, and "friends" is the operative word there. You all make my life a better place, and were it not for my love of a silly but wonderful movie, I wouldn't know you.

There's more, too. You know that writing thing I do a lot? Hi, thanks fandom. :) I mean, yes, I've always written a lot, even in my pre-fandom days. (And between-fandom. My first fandom was actually Sailor Moon, back in middle school. Heh.) But it was very much the Newsies fandom where I've grown up as a writer, like, a lot. Maybe natural over the course of six years, but if it weren't for the amazing community and the encouragement... It makes a big difference. And I'm so proud of the writing I've done in fandom. "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" is 350 pages long, and it took four years, but it's the best thing I've ever written -- and the way my writing improved is definitely clear throughout. Even a year and a half after finishing, I pretty much glow with pride when I think about the last few chapters. (I managed to pull loose threads together into a coherent ending! I didn't know I could do that!)

It's a small fandom, and not one most people stay in for an extended period of time. (Fair enough: it's a closed, short canon.) I've seen lots of people come and go, and there are a lot of people I miss. And I've definitely been more out than in at times. But it's always been there for me, and I always come back to it. At some point, I think I described it as feeling like I was One True Fandom? I think so.

So here's to another six, and many happy returns. ♥