Hey all Diggy here! Lol if you're reading this Im assuming you actually care about mah journals. Aaaanyway, gather round as Id like to share a little tale with yah..dont know why Im posting this..just felt the need to.

Okay so seeing it was November reminded me of a turning point in my life, a major one. Around this time last November, I was just getting into the public realm of the fandom. I had just come from Megaplex 2010 and had met a lotta cool people and seen a bunch of cool suits. I remember thinking about thats all the fandom was at that point; cool suits, RP, and people who drew art/nerding out about anthros.

With that view I continued to handle myself this same way online. Only really ever RP'ing and talking about fuzzy stuff (murr purr or not). It wasnt until one night last November when I was talking to a fur online about stuff and all sorts of 'things' until he suddenly stopped talking. I figured it was a dropped connection, but the next day he came back online talking about how I freaked him out and all sorts of things. I honestly felt pretty bad for making someone scared of me, but there was one thing he said that I'll always remember: "You cant just treat me like im some 'thing'...there's more to me than just my character".

Those words blew my freaking mind. Suddenly it hit me, I had been approaching this fandom all kinds of wrong. I remember sitting back in my chair and saying "What the frick are yah doing Diggy!?". All this time I had been in the fandom I had only been doing what 'everyone else was doing' or what I thought I was supposed to do to be a fur either that or acting how I thought people wanted me to because I was a black guy in the fandom(a rarity in the fandom I know..but I digress). It was in that moment I realized that I cant just treat this fandom like a joke..or be so shallow with the people in it, thinking their character was all that existed and nothing more. The fandom is an escape, but the people are REAL.

I made a promise to myself that day, that I would never handle the fandom in such a shallow way again and I'd use it to better myself. I went into 2011 with the mantra of doing this fandom 'Diggy's way' which meant I was gonna get to know the people I met for who they were, was gonna add value to thier lives and vice versa, and more importantly do what I wanted and not what I THOUGHT people wanted of me.

So..why did I tell this little tale. I dunno, I guess I figured someone out there could use this and see that this fandom is what you make it, and you may lose your way in it sometimes, but when you find yourself and start going through this thing with respect for yourself, thats when you find true happiness in it. Sure you may gain a few haters, but you gain so many more REAL friends that they don't even matter.

So thanks to those who read this and as always Im so blessed to have people that matter in my life and know that I matter in theirs and that I do add a bit of inspiration to all ya'll and cant wait to see so many of yah at MFF <3


Oh and for all the tl;dr peeps - Found a bit of myself in this fandom and I'll be at MFF! X)

-Diggy <3