Look i dont wanna sound like a Fandom Mom or whatever but what do you think women over 25 or so are supposed to do? Do u really think theyre supposed to drop all their interests and just talk about taxes and marriage or whatever? It seems like 25+ year old fanboys do not receive this kind of “ooh cringe” reaction either. There are guys in their 40s with comic book collections and shit and people might think theyre a nerd at worst, not a freak who shouldnt be trusted
Thank you.Because, here’s the thing, I literally tried that. And this sounds really dramatic but it kind of ruined my life for a long time.
Once I got out of grad-school and started working, at exactly age 25, I figured it was time to get serious because I was “too old for this stuff” and frankly I was afraid of being judged.
I sold all my comics, I stopped reading fanfiction, I stopped playing video games. All of it. It’s not that I never, ever watched anything “geeky” or spent a weekend binge-reading a kink-meme, but when I did, it was rare and I’d feel guilty about it like it was time wasted. I’d keep it all to myself, you know? And without any kind of inspiration, I eventually stopped drawing. After all, I didn’t need it for my “serious job,” so why bother? Unfortunately, my former skill is so atrophied now it’s nearly lost, but worse than that, it’s stressful now instead of the thing I loved to do for most of my life.
What was I doing instead? Well, I’d work my miserable, toxic job, come home and worry about how far behind everyone else I was, and how weird I was compared to all my colleagues. I’d go out with people and do the things they liked doing, but I only pretended to. But I’m not great at that and pretending to be someone else ate me alive. Unsurprisingly, by 31, my anxiety and depression was not in a great place, and I fuckin’ snapped. Not just because of this stuff, of course, but it honestly contributed. I quit my job and left town.
Suddenly I was completely alone, no job, no friends, and no reason to pretend to be someone else. So, I started doing all the things I’d given up. I read all the fanfiction I wanted, I bought a Playstation and an SNES and played them for hours. I bought back every comic book I loved, watched every Marvel movie I missed, and caught up on my favorite characters. I started traveling around just going to cons for the first time (NYCC, GeekGirlCon, DragonCon, etc). In fact, at @geekgirlcon and DragonCon especially, I saw groups of women who were 60+, just fucking enjoying things, and it made me feel so much better about my future. I’m not even joking, I literally cry every time I think about it, because I never realized how scared I was about aging in a world that thinks I’m already a decade too old for the things I love. Suddenly, that wasn’t so scary.
And then I just stopped pretending that I wasn’t into this stuff. I mean all of it, even the stuff no one understand, even the stuff people openly make fun of, even smutty fanfiction.
And look, I’m not saying this cured my depression, or that everything is perfect. For one, I picked a city that’s awful for geeks and I’m trying to figure out where to move and how. For another, I lost six years of making like-minded friends, and it’s hard to find them now because we’re all so worried about being judged and online – the space that was always a refuge for me as a loner weirdo growing up – is now apparently a Children of the Corn. But I’m happier here, actually fucking liking things, than being the unobjectionable robot woman I’m apparently supposed to be.
I don’t expect anyone to actually be interested in this, or have gotten this far, but because I’m having feelings about turning 36 on Monday, I just want to tell anyone who is about to turn 25 that you should just tell people to go fuck themselves. It’s your life. You’re going to offend people no matter what you do, at least choose the direction that makes you happiest, because those people certainly aren’t going to pay for your fucking therapist bills, are they?🦖
pssst
imma tell you a secret
the people saying you must give up the things you love upon reaching adulthood are
wrong
Hell yeah.
Also? Getting older as a fan can be awesome. I’ll be 30 in less than two months and I have a stability I never had when I was in my mid 20s or younger. My timetable and paycheck are so much more predictable, and that makes it so much easier and so much more fun to be a fan.
Want to buy those stickers? You can! Want to spend the whole weekend reading or writing fic? You can! Want to hop on a plane and visit that fandom friend in person? You may need to save up a bit, but you can!
Everyone I know is teasing me about my upcoming birthday, acting as if my life will be over then. Only to immediately be confused, if not irritated, that I’m so happy and positive about it. Well, why wouldn’t I be? I’m an active participant in a great community doing something I absolutely love. Life isn’t perfect, but it’s so much better than it was when I was younger.
Being an old fan is fun, don’t let society or the tumblr fun police tell you otherwise.
“what was it like 400 years ago?” fuck if i know. i don’t even remember what it was like last week.
catch me procrastinating basic tasks for twenty times longer
“oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to get around to fixing that window, but I’ve just been so busy, y’know?”
“you’ve lived here since 1740″
MMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Walking through a museum and seeing some old things of yours and just going “FUCK. FUCK GOD DAMN IT, I’ve been looking for this forEVER” and then trying to haggle with the curator to get your shit back
This fucking site: hey net neutrality is about to die :((( please help us :(((( boost and rb everything you see even if you’re not American :((((((((( we’ll have no wifi :(((((( we need you!!!! :((((
Non-Americans: okay
Non-Americans: hey greece is basically on fire, 150 people are wounded, 53 are killed and our nature is being destroyed. we’re suspecting arson. can you please reblog some posts and help spread awareness?
This fucking site:
Allow me to elaborate on how bad things are here. 7 places are burning at the same time while in Μάτι and Κίνετα the fire not only burned trees but because off the strong winds(80 kilometes per hour) it burned houses, it burned people. Firefighters and volunteers do whatever they can with the little gear they have as always because why on earth would the goverment give money to firefighting vechiles, canadairs and literally anything else that could be useful in this country when we know that every summer someone wants to burn forests so they can build whatever they want. Anyways, people started running away once some firefighters managed to warn them to evacute ( something that others should have done because these people have to keep working so they can prevent the fore from doing anymore damage ). People started running to get to the beach which was their only hope, unfortunately some people with their families were trapped once the fire circurled the area around them leaving them with the only thing to do, wait for their end. Charred bodies were found locked in embrace the next day. Now the people who reached the beach had to wait there so they could be transferred from there to the port of Ραφήνα. Here’s a photo :
The deaths are officially at 79 by the most recent official announcement. Places like Mati, Kineta, Chania, Neos Boutsas and more are being burned to the core.
Minimum help is being given by neighboring countries. Officially 2 aircrafts from Italy and 2 from Cuprus whipe some are expected from Romania, Hungary, Spain.
There are abouy 31 people registred as missing in a web site while that doesnt mean those are all the people missing.
If you know people you know or suspect are missing call 199, the fire department.
If you are looking for someone missing don’t call hospitals, call 199, the fire department.
People got burned alive in their cars, in their homes.
Cars are literally melted by the fires.
The victims include children, thankfully the ones that survived are shocked, of course, but safe and in the hospital. The number of kids in the hospital ‘Παίδον’ (Pedon) in Athens is 11; 12 exited yesterday, and the kids left are expected to leave today.
The suspicion of the fires falls on arson. It something that Greece has suffered from a lot throughout the years. Yet we are never prepared for most of our problems whether it has to do with natural causes or not.
The situation is horrible. If you can’t help anyway else, reblog to spread awareness on the matter!
Honestly this is so much more helpful than my vent post (which I didn’t expect to blow up the way it did). If y’all are gonna boost something, boost this instead.
rebblogging AGAIN, because Greece, South Europe in general, needs help.
