Thread by @MewMus, As people are sharing their introductions to the fandom I wanted to [...]

As people are sharing their introductions to the fandom I wanted to make a thread to tell my story.

This will likely be a little long but I think sharing these experiences is important and hopefully helps you all to understand a little more about me~!

So lets get this started..

Growing up I was always a fan of animals

Because we moved a lot I didn& #39;t have a lot of chances to make stable friend groups and as such TV and Video Games became my main source of entertainment

Through these, I discovered a lot of my earliest influences from very young ages

There was so much "furry" content I engaged in that it& #39;s hard for me to even begin summarizing but the standouts for me where

Movies: The Lion King, Cats Don& #39;t Dance, Once Upon a Forest
Shows: Eckhart Mouse, Tailspin, Animals of Farthing Wood
Games: Sheila Rae the Brave, Sonic

These were of course just what I engaged with as a child, but from an early age everyone knew that I loved "cartoon animals" and would always point me to content that contained them

This fascination continued through to primary school where I would often pretend to be animals

It was around 2005 (when I was 12) that I first became aware of "the fandom" as a thing

This was a very hard time of my life for me, puberty had just started and school bullying was a huge issue

So when child me googles "Fox and Dragon" for a creative writing project, well...

...safe search was very ineffective at the time, through this googling though I found my way to furry forums, the rabbit valley bookstore and many other furry community sites

I understood that I was far too young to engage with any of the content, but looked on in fascination

I didn& #39;t understand at the time, but I had found my people and this was beyond validating as a child that had grown up thinking they were a freak

over the next two years, I kept up with forums and imageboards, avoiding the NSFW channels and not posting, but eagerly learning

It was around 2007 when I was rescued from a particularly dangerous situation by a stranger (that& #39;s all I& #39;ll go into for now)

The passerby was a 16-year-old who ended up becoming my first real intro into the fandom

When she was making sure I was okay, I commented on her shirt

It was a Lion King 2 shirt with Vitani on the front and we ended up talking for hours about furry stuff in general where she safely introduced me to a couple of spaces I could talk in

Namely The Lion King Fan Art Archive, Some Furcadia and a joint character we made on SecondLife

I was still very passive in my interactions on these platforms, but through them, I created my first fursonas, found a safe space to shelter from my abuse and a label to a group I felt I belonged

I came out as a furry to my classmates and whilst it got me teasing I was happy

At this point, my family moved once again, this time to the USA for two years

During this time I was homeschooled which gave me for the first time in my life an opportunity to have some self-development

I pursued a passion for wildlife photography and bought my first tablet

I rapidly grew in my participation within the fandom as well, making friends on SecondLife and learning to draw

It was at this point that I really created my first "real" fursona, with the help of my friend from earlier

A border collie that I eventually passed back to her

Upon returning to Australia I felt I had a reasonable understanding of who I was

A furry that wanted to become a wildlife photographer

But years 11-12 had other plans...

Whilst I started engaging far more within the fandom my irl friend group bar like one did not approve

Whilst my passion for photography was the main focal point of my bullying, being a furry was something treated as a "deviant" and the second it got out there that I was also into size-play/feet/etc it ended up becoming a point of shame

This marked the start of me hiding this irl

Although, in the company of my own home or spending time with that one supportive friend ( @Halcyon_7 ilu <3 ) I started to really come out of my shell as a furry

I gave my friend the Collie sona we had made together and created the first sona of what people may recognise, Rowan

From here I only started to engage more and more, practising drawing and getting heavily into RP

This was a great time of self-exploration and I felt so at home talking to my fur friends

Unfortunately this was all still something I was ashamed of in the background

As I grew better at drawing so did the demand for my work and I started taking commissions

At the same time things where falling apart for me irl, so I moved out with my partner at the time for a fresh start in Melbourne

This was a mistake overall, but did give me freedom

I embraced being a furry more heavily (much to the disdain of my ex) and started going to cons

Having moved away from all my high school friends as well, made me realise quickly that those I loved to engage with where all my furry friends

I continued to grow & this was good

During this time is when I was dealing with my gender dysphoria, something I had been exploring with my fursona for a while but finally came out!

This marks the change from my old FA account to the Enormouse label and the shift from old mouse to the female mouse most of you know

This also marked the start of rapid changes to my irl life

My living situation turned abusive, I developed PTSD and I was desperately broke/in-debt

I started taking on commissions I& #39;d normally decline out of desperation and this led to a strong disconnect from my sona & art

Thus began the soul searching of a million sona& #39;s

Switching between things and trying to find myself again

This disconnect hit hard as furry had been my stable point since early childhood & suddenly in the middle of my awful situation I felt separated from it

Eventually, I got out of that situation (actually with the help of that first friend in the fandom) & started getting the help I needed to recover

This is the time period where my art went through a stage of rapid improvement & I settled back into the fandom as who I am today

Having finally reclaimed furry for myself I started to wear it with pride and tried to integrate it into every part of my life

Something which has for the most part been extremely validating and rewarding

I am a furry, always have been and always will be

This marked the shift from recovery and into who I am today

I moved one final time from my "skunk" sona to the Liom I am now, reclaiming part of my mouse & embracing my TLK start

and I took one of the biggest steps in my life, flew across the world and attended MFF 2018

This MFF without a doubt is to this day the best experience of my life

I& #39;ve never cried so much out of joy

I met so many people I& #39;d known for years & so many new friends a top that, it was truly magical in a way I& #39;ll never be able to explain

The validation of my whole life

Having experienced MFF and the sheer energy of the fandom in person properly shifted my entire life

This is something so incredibly core to me and I NEED to be expressing it more

I came out as a furry to my parents, I shifted the theming of my twitch streams to be furry & more

Between MFF 2018 and 2019 I grew so fast as an individual and I& #39;m continuing to grow

This community is magical and I wouldn& #39;t be here without it

By the next con, I had solidified so much about who I am and have taken many steps forward towards being full-time furry!

In the months since then, a lot has changed

I& #39;ve been trapped indoors from fires, hail and pandemics

But this has given me a lot of time to grow as a person and really focus what& #39;s important to me

Being a furry is core to who I am

I want this to be everything in my life

I know this thread has been long and rambly, but I hope it& #39;s at least been an interesting read

Who knows what the future holds, but I sure do hope it stays fluffy

This community is more important to me than I can ever express

& I didn& #39;t even cover everything in this thread!

I& #39;m continuing to work on making furry more and more integrated into my life

It& #39;s hard, especially financially, but every step I& #39;ve taken has been rewarding

Thank you for being with me on my journey, I look forward to seeing where it goes

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💕" title="Zwei Herzen" aria-label="Emoji: Zwei Herzen">Thank you all for being my family

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I& #39;m continuing to work on making furry more and more integrated into my lifeIt& #39;s hard, especially financially, but every step I& #39;ve taken has been rewardingThank you for being with me on my journey, I look forward to seeing where it goeshttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable=

Thank you all for being my familyhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💕" title="Zwei Herzen" aria-label="Emoji: Zwei Herzen">" title="I& #39;m continuing to work on making furry more and more integrated into my lifeIt& #39;s hard, especially financially, but every step I& #39;ve taken has been rewardingThank you for being with me on my journey, I look forward to seeing where it goeshttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💕" title="Zwei Herzen" aria-label="Emoji: Zwei Herzen">Thank you all for being my familyhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💕" title="Zwei Herzen" aria-label="Emoji: Zwei Herzen">" class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>

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