Well, I've been watching and enjoying the Furry community from a distance for 14 years now (accept for meeting a friend in person a few times and that one time I went to Califur in 2013) Still feels so recent that I discovered the Fandom, only to also discover the hate towards it four days later. That would stop me from enjoying it to the fullest extent. Sometime during February of 2016, efforts to find some way around the negative emotions that blocked my enjoyment were finally abandoned.
While that part of my life didn't go the way I wanted it to, I eventually started using all that negativity as motivation. I've been going back to school and am going to be able to begin my career in biotechnology after this upcoming Fall semester. My long term goal is to do research in the neuroscience field. So thank you to all of those in the Furry Fandom, who have given me a chance to experience a little joy out of this community!

(And thank you to the furry haters, too. Because if not for you people, I wouldn't have the drive to make this world a better place)