Why I relate to Furries without Identifying as LGBT+
- Being the Weird Kid in School
Looking back, I used to be a really weird back in grade school. I mean I wasn’t the most visibily weird kid and I feel like that’s what made me weird. I used to hide everything from everyone.
First of all, I was extremely anti-social and looking back it’s because of my home environment. Growing up in a detached house in American suburbs when both of your parents were working and before you had a driver’s license is the most isolating experience ever.
I remember I would spend entire summers at home getting bored, doing nothing because none of my school friends were walming distance and my parents would always have their eyes on me and say that playing outside was too dangerous cause of the cars speeding down the road and instead I should be home studying. I can write a whole essay of how car-centric society in America has impacted me as a person but I’ll put that in its own section.
- Avoiding wearing glasses in school
But yeah because of lack of socializing snd my experience growing up with asian parents, I was extremely socially awkward in school. I remember when I first got glasses, I was extremely self-conscious in how people would perceive me. Would they point out that I’m wesring glasses? Would they make faces at me? Will I become the center of attention?
So do you know what I did? For grades 6-11, I just never wore then. Yes I was so afraid of how people would think I would look with them on that I just didn’t bother to wear them. Since I had nearsightedness, whenever teachers were writing something on the whiteboard or tirn n on the projector, I would look away oract busy so that the teacher wouldn’t call on me (sinceI couldn’t see it anyway).
Some classes I had to get creative. I remember when first getting glasses, my eye prescription was low enough that I could still read relatively well. I had a crazy idea and I would poke a small hole in an eraser and look through that and somehow that would make it clear enough to read the board. To this day, I don’t know how that worked. For some time I debated taking off a piece of my lens of my glasses and squishing it into the hole in my eraser so basically creating like a magnifying glass with my eye prescription.
So yeah for 6 whole years, I managed to get away without wearing glases. My grades pribably suffered as a result, but I still got straight A’s. But even as more and more peope around me started wearing prescription glasses, I still couldn’t muster the confidence to do it for all those years. Looking back, I was just so extremely self-conscious about myself for no reason.
- Exposing my friends by stalking on their profiles
Yall remember those cringy middle and high school group chats? I would legit save every single message and photo that was sent in it. Couple months latter, I would repost said image in order to come back at someone.
- Stage Fright
There’s a saying that if you’re afraid of public speaking, uou should imagine the audience in their underwear. Personally I think that’s gross. But first time I went to a furcon and saw grown adults around me wearing silly costumes and being cringe, it reslly helped me forget that there.ms a whole person in their and I felt like all that nervousness that I had in approaching skmeone just disappeared.
- Cultural Differences Growing Up as a First-Gen American
I don’t relate to Christianity cause I was raised Hindu. I don’t relate to how many of my White friend’s personality cause it’s fundamentally different from Indian’s. But with furries, I completely forget who’s in that suit and can just relate to them by my hobbies. Speaking off…
- Nicheness of hobbies and networking
I’ve met furs from so many background and interesting careers. It’s given me so much exposure to new fields. I first got introduced to the fandom from seeing a speedeun of the game SLARPG live at Fastest Furs. That fans is super niche, only has 2k reviews on steam and it’s one of those RPGMaker games which is already a niche genre. I knew from that point forward that this community will help me explore my niche hobbies (which I have a lot of).