reggie on Nostr: I'm still pretty drunk and feeling sentimental as I reflect on what I’ve been ...

I'm still pretty drunk and feeling sentimental as I reflect on what I’ve been privileged to experience in this fandom.

Seeing the younger furs in my lil big niche be so open and unashamed (sincerely unashamed) about their kinks is overwhelmingly uplifting.

For the first few years of con going, I was trapped with some reserved folks. While I don’t believe their efforts to repress others through earnest shaming were conscious, it felt overwhelming and pervasive in the damage it did.

I consciously never created a “safe” and conventionally thin character to fit in. Not only did it feel disingenuous, but I felt like if I did, I’d be perpetuating that shameful self-censoring those early friends of mine did.

I would be rotund and show others this is part of our furry experience.

And hearing so many folks today tell me they remember seeing me about the fandom when they were discovering it as impressionable teens and realizing it’s okay to just be big on main and not be ashamed (sincerely ashamed) makes me feel like I made the right choice.

I hope I made a little difference.