Snowflake Challenge 02025 #10: First!
Jan. 19th, 2025 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptChallenge #10 asks us to find the very first of something.
A fair number of my actual firsts are lost to time and a distinct lack of memory or evidence thereof, because many of them are the things that I did as a child, without the understanding that what I was doing was related in any way to fannish practice. Or they're things like "the first time the other Boy Scouts tried to barricade me and my friends in the room we'd chosen for the sleepover, because we were technology and Star Trek people," "the first time someone in high school told me and a friend to shut up about science fiction stuff because he'd had enough of us being nerds," or "the first of many times that people were rude or callous to me because I was engaging in fandom activity and they wanted me to do 'normal' things." The last of those was in a bundle with other things, and I was mostly encouraged by the adults around me to see it as a sign of jealousy of my abilities and successes. (Even as they may have fretted about my emotional maturity.) The defense mechanism I developed was both a feeling of superiority to the mundanes and a fervent desire to escape the provincial mindset and go somewhere more cosmopolitan so that I could found other nerds. (And I did!) Thankfully, once I got to that place where other people were also striving for their grades and there were plenty of places and people of interest who didn't try to stifle the person that I was, I was able to discard the defense mechanism as no longer useful. I could have walked a very different path in fandom, but I turned aside from that way fairly early on.
There's some Potter in my fannish firsts, like where I successfully, correctly, and in context used "shipping" as a verb for the first time while talking with some grad school friends about the actual endgame ships for that series. (The phenomenon was real, and everyone who had a potential interest in libraries or youth services was keeping tabs on it.) There's some of reading the last book to get to the end very close to release day (and the joys and profound disappointments that come from a series closing, and whether or not the speculation around it turned out correctly.) There's a first in that Jo Rowling was the first author I watched turn into a monster in real time. (Not the first one I knew was a monster, but the first one I watched embrace it wholeheartedly and go from "believed author" to "at least part pariah.")
Probably my biggest fannish moments, and several of my firsts that in more aware of, were in my university days, when I had time and resources to devote toward collecting and watching the anime and manga boom, pick up some of the Sentai and Rider shows, and occasionally road trip with friends to conventions. I think the first anime that I watched front to back was Fushigi Yugi, but that wasn't the last. It was definitely the time where I first got to meet all kinds of fun people and get things autographed. (Some of whom turned out to be much less fun and good than their public personas were.) I think it's also the time where I learned there's way more fun stuff in the artist's alley than necessarily in the dealer's hall, and it's where I can find all kinds of fun fannish things crafted by other fans and have a small chat with the people who are there. (I think I also picked up on the truth that most people minding the both get zero chance to experience the rest of the con, between here and the stint I did as part of the convention committee for the university's tabletop gaming convention, where I spent a lot of time in operations making sure everything moved smoothly. Did wrangle a GoH, once, which was very fun.)
None of the "grab my friends and go to con" happens now because I moved very far away from that group of friends to get a job, and I'm also currently the only person in my household with the physical ability and stamina to do con circuit at the speed I want to go. So instead I make friends at cons, and occasionally have fannish interactions with coworkers instead. It's not lonely, by any means, but it has meant having to get over being shy about talking to people, and figuring out how to compliment cosplay without sounding creepy about it. (If you can find details about the costuming, instead of the body in the costume, it usually goes over well.) This also occasionally means I have to accept compliments or conversation starters, of which I usually have a satchel with pins on the front and/or my work pin lanyard that does the job nicely for getting kids and grownups to talk to me about fun characters and their favorite pieces of media. (I am feeling a bit like I'm falling forever behind about new fandoms, though, which can make it hard to appreciate the cosplay on anything more than a technical level. Cursed things like housing, food, and other such costs make it hard for me to obtain media, and a full time job means I have basically no additional time to catch up on anything.
I suppose I could create less and watch more, but where's the fun in that?)
I met very important people in Dreamwidth for the first time at a no longer existing open source conference, several of whom would become important players in helping me recognize and gather the momentum for removing myself from my bad relationship. And through things like Snowflake, I've met several other folks and had good conversations about media, tropes, and characters, among other things. It's not the first place, but it's been one of the best. And there's been firsts from there, like the first thing I posted to AO3 that wasn't an import from somewhere else (which is also the first exchange-related work that I did), the first work to summit the hundred-kudos mountain, the first one to get a gigantic squee from the recipient, and so many of the other firsts that came from that. The terrifying realization that the first series read that I went on has nearly a million words from me before it was all done. And that even past that, just for things I've posted to AO3 I might have another million coming up soon.
And then there was that time where I got to do a Snake Fight work…
Anyway, as it is, I've got a lot of firsts, and plenty of things that have gone on from there, and the lovely comments and kudos that I've received have been wonderful for continuing things along.
Challenge #10
In your own space, talk about one of your fandom firsts. This could be your first fandom, your first fandom friend, the first fanwork you created, the first fanwork you interacted with... The options are endless! […]
Sometimes firsts are forgotten, but sometimes they stand out in your mind even years later. (Or days later, there's no time limit on firsts!) Hopefully this challenge can bring back some good memories from your fandom life.
A fair number of my actual firsts are lost to time and a distinct lack of memory or evidence thereof, because many of them are the things that I did as a child, without the understanding that what I was doing was related in any way to fannish practice. Or they're things like "the first time the other Boy Scouts tried to barricade me and my friends in the room we'd chosen for the sleepover, because we were technology and Star Trek people," "the first time someone in high school told me and a friend to shut up about science fiction stuff because he'd had enough of us being nerds," or "the first of many times that people were rude or callous to me because I was engaging in fandom activity and they wanted me to do 'normal' things." The last of those was in a bundle with other things, and I was mostly encouraged by the adults around me to see it as a sign of jealousy of my abilities and successes. (Even as they may have fretted about my emotional maturity.) The defense mechanism I developed was both a feeling of superiority to the mundanes and a fervent desire to escape the provincial mindset and go somewhere more cosmopolitan so that I could found other nerds. (And I did!) Thankfully, once I got to that place where other people were also striving for their grades and there were plenty of places and people of interest who didn't try to stifle the person that I was, I was able to discard the defense mechanism as no longer useful. I could have walked a very different path in fandom, but I turned aside from that way fairly early on.
There's some Potter in my fannish firsts, like where I successfully, correctly, and in context used "shipping" as a verb for the first time while talking with some grad school friends about the actual endgame ships for that series. (The phenomenon was real, and everyone who had a potential interest in libraries or youth services was keeping tabs on it.) There's some of reading the last book to get to the end very close to release day (and the joys and profound disappointments that come from a series closing, and whether or not the speculation around it turned out correctly.) There's a first in that Jo Rowling was the first author I watched turn into a monster in real time. (Not the first one I knew was a monster, but the first one I watched embrace it wholeheartedly and go from "believed author" to "at least part pariah.")
Probably my biggest fannish moments, and several of my firsts that in more aware of, were in my university days, when I had time and resources to devote toward collecting and watching the anime and manga boom, pick up some of the Sentai and Rider shows, and occasionally road trip with friends to conventions. I think the first anime that I watched front to back was Fushigi Yugi, but that wasn't the last. It was definitely the time where I first got to meet all kinds of fun people and get things autographed. (Some of whom turned out to be much less fun and good than their public personas were.) I think it's also the time where I learned there's way more fun stuff in the artist's alley than necessarily in the dealer's hall, and it's where I can find all kinds of fun fannish things crafted by other fans and have a small chat with the people who are there. (I think I also picked up on the truth that most people minding the both get zero chance to experience the rest of the con, between here and the stint I did as part of the convention committee for the university's tabletop gaming convention, where I spent a lot of time in operations making sure everything moved smoothly. Did wrangle a GoH, once, which was very fun.)
None of the "grab my friends and go to con" happens now because I moved very far away from that group of friends to get a job, and I'm also currently the only person in my household with the physical ability and stamina to do con circuit at the speed I want to go. So instead I make friends at cons, and occasionally have fannish interactions with coworkers instead. It's not lonely, by any means, but it has meant having to get over being shy about talking to people, and figuring out how to compliment cosplay without sounding creepy about it. (If you can find details about the costuming, instead of the body in the costume, it usually goes over well.) This also occasionally means I have to accept compliments or conversation starters, of which I usually have a satchel with pins on the front and/or my work pin lanyard that does the job nicely for getting kids and grownups to talk to me about fun characters and their favorite pieces of media. (I am feeling a bit like I'm falling forever behind about new fandoms, though, which can make it hard to appreciate the cosplay on anything more than a technical level. Cursed things like housing, food, and other such costs make it hard for me to obtain media, and a full time job means I have basically no additional time to catch up on anything.
I suppose I could create less and watch more, but where's the fun in that?)
I met very important people in Dreamwidth for the first time at a no longer existing open source conference, several of whom would become important players in helping me recognize and gather the momentum for removing myself from my bad relationship. And through things like Snowflake, I've met several other folks and had good conversations about media, tropes, and characters, among other things. It's not the first place, but it's been one of the best. And there's been firsts from there, like the first thing I posted to AO3 that wasn't an import from somewhere else (which is also the first exchange-related work that I did), the first work to summit the hundred-kudos mountain, the first one to get a gigantic squee from the recipient, and so many of the other firsts that came from that. The terrifying realization that the first series read that I went on has nearly a million words from me before it was all done. And that even past that, just for things I've posted to AO3 I might have another million coming up soon.
And then there was that time where I got to do a Snake Fight work…
Anyway, as it is, I've got a lot of firsts, and plenty of things that have gone on from there, and the lovely comments and kudos that I've received have been wonderful for continuing things along.
