Hey everyone, thought I'd make a Journal entry which would basically go over my Furry life experiences up to now.~ ^__^

Like many Furries, I grew up watching animation and playing video games with animal characters. As well as growing up with having a certain knack for stuff like inflation and weight gain. And I also enjoyed drawing. And well, with the rise of the internet, I eventually found out about the Furry fandom, and how it appeared (at least to me) to be a community with like-minded people with similar interests as mine. I was intrigued. (This was me around the age of 18)

But I was incredibly shy too. I didn't know the first thing about how the Furry community worked. And who there was I supposed to approach? Was I supposed to just go up to some random Furry and go "Hey! I like your work! We should be friends!"? I probably should've tried saying hello more often at the very least. Ah well. xP

It wasn't until around the age of 21 when I finally met my first Furry "friend" (name will be anonymous). For the first few years of my Furry Life (not much of a life xD ), I was very naive and innocent. My perception and expectation of the Furry community initially was that it was a very relaxing place to just hang out and have fun. I was completely wrong. While there are certainly plenty of happy people who love to have fun, I learned that many Furries took the whole thing very seriously. And many of them weren't exactly the happiest of people. Many I noticed were even quite hostile towards others. It seemed very... sad. Add to the fact that artists take their work very seriously, made the community not quite as happy as I previously thought it was.

My first Furry "friend," I initially thought was a pretty cool guy to get to know. I was a fan of his work, and was happy to be able to chat with someone who might finally understand a certain side of me. But such expectations did not last. I soon found out he was a pretty sour, bitter, and grouchy person. And I also soon found out we had little to nothing in common. Every conversation with him was just him ranting about things about the Furry fandom and how sucky things were. As well as me apparently having to listen to him and heed his "wisdom."

He also mentioned to me the concept of RPing. Which at the time I had never heard of before. I didn't really understand it. But he kept complaining on and on about how it was something that existed. I didn't understand anything that was going on. But it practically made me less interested in the Furry community for a while. And it sucked that this was during a pretty sucky moment in my life. I wanted to get more into Furries. But I learned little to nothing useful. if anything, I was driven away instead. And of course, I spoke to my "friend" much less after a while.


Fast-forward a couple years later, I was at the age of 23, just getting out of college. I had not attempted to try talking to any other Furry in the last couple of years. I had thought the concept of me ever making friends with people was going to be impossible. And I was still very shy. I mean, what could I possibly do? Or say to people? Seemed like a lost cause to me. So all I did was simply follow plenty of artists on FurAffinity for a while. I'd admire many people's artwork. As well as find a lot of the submission comments hilarious and amusing. It made me wish all the more I could meet these people. They seemed like a fun bunch to get to know. But I hadn't forgotten when the "mask" of my first Furry "friend" fell off. So I held back my desires and kept quiet and remained a lurker. What kinda saddens me is that some Furries I followed grew bitter on the site and ended up leaving, as well as taking their artwork. Never will I be able to say hi to them, or let them know how they inspired me.

These quiet 2 years finally came to an end, when I finally met the 2nd Furry I'd interact with. Good ole  ShinyTotodude . The big difference between him and my first "friend," was that he was bursting with enthusiasm. And I haven't forgotten that to this day, he was the one who made my current Avatar icon. He did it on the first day we spoke to each other. I could hardly believe it. In just one day, he accomplished far more than what months of my first "friend" did.

Since then, we spoke, exchanging notes, and I learned more and more about the Furry community. All the way until I was 24 years old. I was so happy. I was finally learning how the community worked. I was finally connecting to the fandom. And really, I was completely uneducated about even simple things. Like what commissions were and things like that. But it helped build up my courage to finally say hi to other Furries. As well as finally starting to do my own artwork! ^__^


So what now? Well, I've met quite a few people on here now.~ And my drawings I think are finally starting to get decent. And I even have tried a few Streams held by  Charem . ^__^ I hope from here on out, my artwork improves. And I hope my relationships with the people I meet here improves as well.~ Would love to enjoy my time here the utmost and have plenty of fun! And I hope the people I meet have a wonderful time around here as well.~ ^__^ I am happy to be a part of this community. And I hope we all get to express ourselves to the fullest and continuing having a great time here together! =D