respoftw | The Fandom Snowflake Challenge

Day 2

In your own space, share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, crazy times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone.

I've always been a fan but I only really even realised that fandom and fanworks were a thing a few years ago. I don't know what I was doing with my time before that! I started out as a lurker in fandom, devouring content on Ff.net and, eventually, AO3 without ever really engaging beyond a kudos or a follow. I was on tumblr but my experience was still super passive, just reblogging and liking.

Then one day, I left a comment on a Star Trek fic and the author replied to me! I know this seems super small but I think it was the first time that I really understood that these people creating these fanworks weren't untouchable. They were people like me who loved something enough to want to celebrate it and they didn't make money from this, they had jobs and lives and that really blew me away. I could talk to these people!!

So, yeah, that one reply sort of opened my eyes to what fandom could give me and I started engaging more, I set up a fandom side blog on tumblr and dipped my toe into writing fic and I started meeting amazing people who I could squee about things with and I haven't ever really looked back.

So, massive thank you to yeaka for first making me realise what fandom could mean to me!