I know what you mean. I have a lot of characters who are female, although they take on some aspects of my own personality naturally. But I like to have them be separate personalities from one another.

I've recently posted pictures of my character Harriet Hedgehog, and she's not a "fursona" either, but she's the closest thing I have to one. But I prefer to call her my fictitious furry "daughter", because she's a ten-year-old girl and I'm a grown man. I guess she has my personality because I have no idea what personality to give her--and I have no idea what my own personality is like. I mean, I'm contemplative, I like to write stories and draw cartoons, and I like to joke around sometimes, but I'm also very uncomfortable around those I don't know, or those who rub me the wrong way, and I get my feelings hurt easily....

Hey, maybe that's enough of a personality for Harriet.... I guess I just don't really think of myself as a "personality"....

It's taken me a long time to have enough self-confidence and self-esteem to where I don't feel shy anymore letting my real personality come through, but it's still hard a lot of the time not to just sit back and try to say what I think people want to hear from me.

I'm still not quite sure why it happened but as soon as i got into middle school i just kind of bottled myself up and kept away from everybody except the few friends i'd made, and even around them there were a lot of things i didn't want to say because i was afraid they wouldn't like me anymore, and i had no idea how to talk to anyone i didn't already know...i pretty much stayed that way up until i graduated from high school.

I guess I prefer to think of Hikari as a character rather than a fursona though just because there are occasionally things that I'd do when I'm in character as her that I'd more than likely never do in person, even if I had fur and a tail and cat ears and all that stuff.

I'm sorry to hear that. I know how you feel--I've had more or less the same problem. Little by little, though, especially having returned to Jesus Christ, I'm coming to realize that what matters most is what God thinks of me, not what other people think of me or even what I think of myself. And at the very least, we can be honest.

At least you made some friends. I had almost no friends except my teachers because I was younger than everyone else. But I know how it feels to fear that others may not like you. I don't know you that well, but from what I do know of you, while I strongly disagree with you on some important matters (like marriage), you seem like a likable person to me, and God willing you won't have to worry about me not liking you. You seem nice enough, and I don't want you to retreat into your shell on my account--and where you believe things I can't agree with, I trust you to at least have the best of intentions (I did once agree with you myself, so I know how it feels to believe that way about marriage).

*nods* Well, I like to just have fun creating different characters and not limiting myself--and to have a challenge in creating them to be different from how I really am (although it's easier to write for them if they're at least a little like me, or else if I have a handle on their personality and know what they would do in a given situation).