Before Jordayne somehow found his way into my life, I was in third grade when I was stupid enough to look onto a weight scale to see how much I weighed. Being 8 years old, weighing in at 150 pounds is certainly a defining moment in my life, one that haunts me to this day; one that led me to see the worst in myself before I had the chance to let someone else do the job. Ask the people I hang out with, ask them what do I make fun of myself for the most? Weight. While everyone sees a slightly chunky guy, weighing in at only 80 pounds more than he did 16 years ago, I still see the little fat kid when I was 8. When you see a man who's fighting through the aftereffects of a divorce, being severely separated from the brightest light in his life, I see a failed father who couldn't keep a marriage together for the sake of his beautiful son. While you see a hard-working guy, working in the sun and searing heat of one of the hotter states during the hottest months, I see a guy that was too stupid to get through school and get a real job doing something that doesn't destroy my body with every day.
See, some people haven't had the chance to grow up with positive encouragement from their peers. Learning what I have about the people in this fandom, I feel pretty safe in guessing that my story isn't unlike the others that will be reading this post. In a world where everyone seems to be loved, I personally was the oddball; the community toilet where everyone seemed to shit out their hatred for no reason other than because I was different. Because maybe I wasn't the smartest; because maybe I wasn't the best at football, because maybe I didn't meet the weight requirement for popularity.
But here, in this community of oddballs and weirdos, scalies and furries, we have all found a place to belong. Yes, maybe we STILL don't meet the, "norm," for society, but who cares? For fuck's sake, we've found out that, "normal," is just a way to say that we give a rat's ass about what people think or say about us; that someone's opinion is what defines who and what we are. No, I've given up on that notion a long time ago, and I've realized just how silly that is. I've realized that, yeah, I may be a bit big, and I may be a bit soft-headed, but what really matters is that I'm at least TRYING to be a good person..... and isn't that what we're all trying to do? Isn't that what we're all striving to be?

...................................... and because I don't know how to end a rant, this one being no exception, I'm just gonna stop talking now.