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 walking distance . 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. Also our home security system made it impossible for me to step outside without alerting them. 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.
- Me in School
I has to take the Talented and Gifted test 3 times before getting accepted. Reason is because I should always fail the creativity test. So I would spend most of my time with the on-level folks and they wouldn’t relate to me cause I was the only studious one.
- 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.
I fact I would still save stuff from tge past today. I have all mt files and every single presentation I’ve worked on dating back to 6th grade. Moving on from the past is my biggest weakness.
- 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).