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I have an account linked to my full name, that is my more... "normal functioning human" account? My professional account? My file under my full name account? I'm not intent on actually hiding this one from that, it's just that they are two very different reasons for looking to make connections on the internet and in social online spaces... Have we come up with a distinction/term for these two parts of yourself??? There should be an easier way to describe this...

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My fandom journey started in childhood, as I am the child of two very intense nerds. My parents wrote love letters to each other in Elvish, and take their wedding anniversary trips to New Zealand and help plan the High Fantasy track at DragonCon and my Dad was just on a panel at NYCC?

Like, I come by it VERY HONESTLY, y'all. We read the Narnia and LOTR books out loud as a family, each reading different parts. We had group family halloween costumes handmade by my mom every year.

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My *personal* fandom journey, when I really made it my own (you know, just like a kid has to accept their parents religious beliefs as their own eventually) was with a certain book series that shall not be named.

I joined a forum in 7th grade, and especially because I was an anxious, bullied kid with a speech impediment and undiagnosed ADHD, it very quickly became a safe haven and some of my most tangible community in my life.

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As time moved on, I ended up loosely joining "nerdfighteria" in 2006, and from there also hopped into a lot of YA-fandom on twitter. In many ways because a lot of YA authors tend to be people who are part of fandom. And I guess because of convention for a book-series-who-must-not-be-named (BSWMNBD?) had a YA-track, which also overlapped with nerdfighteria... this is part of why I have a hard time "naming a fandom" vs being part of "fandom" in general...

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I joined twitter in 2010, went to my first convention in 2011, and in 2012 was an early enthusiast of #TheLizzieBennetDiaries, which kicked off the era of literary transmedia adaptations, and my obsession with them. I had a tumblr before the #LBD but I didn't use it regularly until then. I was an integral member of the LBD fandom, helped create fandom spaces for the show, including livestream Q&A's I organized and moderated with assistance from the friend group I made from the show.

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Being an accidental BNF made me take a step back in some ways from ~fandom~ at large, and turn to more private expressions of fandom for a while.

Then I hit a period of obsession with Girl Meets World, and look, you might not understand, but it was a really important show to me, and made me realize that maybe actually Boy Meets World was my first fandom and transmedia experience. I got very into fanfic and general tumblr discourse, and enjoyed attending live tapings of the show? Y'all.

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I should maybe be embarrassed about that but I have a policy to not be embarrassed by the things I'm passionate about, so. (that policy is about to really catch up with me when I keep sharing what comes next, so buckle in, kids.)

Fast forward, GMW is canceled, I'm in grad school, I'm dating someone, we break up, WINTER OLYMPICS 2018, enter Ice Dance.

Yes, my friends, my next fandom was VirtueMoir. I wish I could say it was not intense and passionate, but I will not lie to you.

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Now here's the thing. That also kickstarted a general obsession with figure skating, but especially ice dance. I have been following the sport ever since.

Tragically, March 2020 my long anticipated trip to Worlds Figure Skating in Montreal was canceled, and to be honest, it's been a struggle to be as excited and engaged with the sport since, because I was really sad. And also I started a new job and got super busy working M-F/8-5 for the first time in my life.

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Now, I still care about ice dance, and have Opinions, okay. And I *Know Things* (just like I *Know Things* about Taylor Swift). But also my venture into a fandom with RPF fanfic... has brought me very close to the point of being embarrassed/ashamed, but it is what it is, folks. I am the keeper of the illstrash fic, and that is a responsibility I do not take lightly. Good fic is good fic, and it's okay to know that real people are the inspiration for character study + creative expression.

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My most recent hyperfixation (and yes, I now have an official ADHD diagnosis and now am well aware that my various obsession periods are also hyperfixations) has been Critical Role. But I have not really engaged with any of the online interaction of that fandom... I was only discussing it via group chats, however those spaces are no longer available to me, so I'm at a bit of a "what now?" point with my engagement with this content.

And it also has led to a general hyperfixation with D&D

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Meaning I now play in 2 campaigns (one meets weekly, the other every other week) and have been thinking about learning to DM so I can teach/play with the 12 + 10 year old and their parents in my apartment building, and prep for when all my favorite 5 years olds turn like... 6? 7? How young is too young, really?

But I also like... am not in touch with any of the ~fandom~nerd~ culture at large, and get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of content I could engage with if I had time

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I also have a massive fear of spoilers (I have only watched through episode 100 of C2, have not watched any of C1 but did watch LoVM on prime and am up to date with C3)

Also becoming a "critter" is weird; my friends are friends with the players, other friends work with some of them on their VR jobs, and also obsession with individual people that I see in some Starkids + Critters makes me uncomfortable, because, well, being a BNF in LBD, fan-turned-friend gave me a unique perspective.

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So, anyway, I sort of don't know what my engagement in fandom looks like at this point in my life, and I don't know what I want this new space to even be...

But I know that I enjoy enjoying media, and talking about it, and I love what can be learned from stories, once we take in, ones we create ourselves... I love the creativity that can happen when we make transformative fan works can be really awesome and beautiful and poignant.

And at my core, I am a fan of things.

/15

In stream of consciousness order, things I have been a fan of or continue to be include:

#Narnia (I will die for Susan)
#LotR
#StarWars (Specifically Rey)
#MarvelVerse
#WonderWoman
#GalGadot
#AnnaKendrick
#Musicals (I didn't even mention musicals before omg, that's an entirely different topic of conversation!)
#MaureenJohnson
#RainbowRowell
#JennyHan
#HankGreen
#TheHungerGames
#GilmoreGirls
#GirlMeetsWorld
#BoyMeetsWorld
#TheGoodPlace
#VeronicaMars
#TheLizzieBennetDiaries
#NothingMuchToDo

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Stream-of-consciousness continued...

#CritcalRole
#FigureSkating
#VirtueMoir
#TaylorSwift
#ShipwreckedComedy
#Hamilton
#ComeFromAway
#Waitress
#TheLastFiveYears
#Parade
#TheRoyalWe book y'all, it's like my favorite book ever

My stream of consciousness is fading and also I've been typing this for 2 hours and my wife is asking me why I ignored the timer that went off 15 minutes ago that I set because I wanted to not spend more than another 15 minutes on this 30 minutes ago. So, uh, bye?

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I'm sure I will have tons more I remembered I wanted to say at some later point, and at that point I guess I may add to this thread or NOT. I can do whatever I want! It's my space!

But anyway, I do need some new fandom friends (and to find my old ones in this space). So, I look forward to getting to know you!

/18

@Rozzychan My favorite thing about AoJE was that they really made some video/editing/audio choices to sacrifice quality for realism-- which then Nothing Much To Do (Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing) really took and ran, having multiple channels and each character/editor had a different video style.