I actually think I have a pretty interesting phandom origin story, as my first video was the squareflakes video. I'm not even kidding. Basically, I had just gotten into MCR in late September of 2015 and noticed all these "crafting" comments on their YouTube videos. Call it human nature, but I wanted in on that joke. I eventually found from other comments that it had something to do with these guys called Dan and Phil. Late one October night, I finally bit the bullet and searched "dan and phil craft joke" on YouTube, found the squarefakes video, and was more than a bit confused but somehow still intrigued. I watched the punk edits video next, then one of the Tumblr tags, and by the end of the week, had pre-ordered TABINOF just 4 days before its US release. And I've pretty much been ever since!
I also started writing phanfiction in October of 2016 (I'm outerspacehowlters on ao3, btw!), which rekindled my lifelong love of writing and even inspired me to transfer colleges, as I realized I'd be much happier following my dream of writing/editing/publishing rather than being a grammar school teacher, even if it's a bit of a harder road. (To be clear, I have nothing against teachers/teaching and may actually come back to it someday--I just don't think I currently have what it takes to handle all the work that goes into it.) I'm now heading into my junior year of college, and the idea of being a creative writing major, with a concentration in fiction, still sends a shiver down my spine, so I'd like to think I'm doing the right thing for me regardless of whether or not it's a throwaway degree.
So. Um. That was a lot longer than I intended but what can I say, I'm a bit of a rambler. I'm really excited to join in the discussions, though, and make some new friends in the community!
