Today, is my one year anniversary for being on FA! Of coarse, it was the previous year that I came into the fandom on that boring summer evening. It's in no way a unique story though. Still, this is a good time to reflect on coming into the fandom.
It was late June in the summer of '09. I was on the computer randomly surfing the web to try and entertain myself. Eventually, I came across a Wikifur article, but I didn't pay that much attention to it at first, except for looking up a web comic that was mentioned.
Not long afterward, the thought popped into my head: "wait, what is Wikifur?" Of coarse, after finding out what that was, I had to find out what a furry was. The word sounded familiar. Hmmm.... Where have I seen the word furry? Wait, I remember.... someone on a forum I had been on had something about that in a banner in their sig! Basically, the banner stated that furries weren't necessarily fetishists or fursuiters, just people that liked animals. That sounds nice and harmless.
I looked it up on the internet too. Naturally, there were a lot of negative ideas about furries, but those sounded like stereotypes (although I kept in mind that "every rumor has a grain of truth"). Besides that, I figured that a furries definition of a furry was more believable since they know who they are. There still wasn't one exact definition, but I came to understand a furry as a fan of anthropomorphic animals who often uses an animal character as an identity in the fandom or for role playing.
During the next couple months I decided that I liked this, and started trying to draw anthros. This was a challenge for me because, before that, I've only drawn inanimate objects from RL or photos. Because of this I did two things to learn a) try and draw from photos of real animals instead of lifeless objects and 2)look up how to draw anthros to learn the process. I tended to notice a difference between drawing what I say and drawing what I couldn't see: while drawing what I could see, I needed to look from one angle, and break the image from my viewpoint into 2d shapes to put it on paper, but to draw something I couldn't see, I had to think in terms of 3d shapes in order to visualize it properly and to feel the volume.
It wasn't until September that, actually knew another furry (online or IRL), or, at least that I knew that I knew another furry. I met up with a friend from high school on day outside of a supermarket. At some point in the conversation I brought up that I've been drawing as a hobby, and listed off some things that I've drawn (or have tried to). I casually included anthros in that list. From there, I found out that they are a fan of that type of art, and it seems to me that we were suddenly closer friends.
After that, it wasn't until January that I came into contact with other furries on the internet, and also it wasn't until then that I started on FA. However, In the spring time, I did get to send (snail mail) letters to a friend I met online in the fandom. Also, I was chatting with another fur, and it turned out that we were very close by at that very moment! Sometime after that, I had set up to meet two others at the mall. Later that day, while hanging out, yet another fur found out. So I ended up meeting three furs that day.
For the most part though, not much has happened since then. I still have yet to go to a con, and I still know very few people in the fandom. Regardless, I'm glad I was bored that one June night over a year ago.