I've done a lot of reflection on this, and at this point it seems pretty obvious why I'm a furry; I grew up loving stories with anthropomorphic animals. Redwall was my favorite book series as a child, and I lost count of how many times I watched Disney's Robin Hood. I also loved George Orwell's book "Animal Farm" in spite of how unsettling it was. Come to think of it, so many stories we all hear as children feature talking animals... It's no surprise that it influenced me, honestly. I was also positively obsessed with Egyptian mythology. For anyone not familiar with the Egyptian pantheon, most of their gods have human bodies with the heads of animals. Horus and Anubis were always my favorites. I wrote stories about them, even...
I suppose anthropomorphic animals were so engrained into my life that I didn't even notice that my love for them began to trickle into the types of characters I'd create. I'd dream up characters for Redwall fanfics that I never wrote; I'd play exclusively as Khajiit and Argonian characters in The Elder Scrolls; in D&D, I made up a new race that I called Felis Sapiens, which I described as "A human-sized, human-shaped cat." That was before I even knew the word "anthropomorphic." I made a character that was this race, and I did insert portions of my personality into him (as I do with all my characters), but I didn't consider him a fursona (at this point in my life, I knew about the furry fandom, so I knew what a fursona was, but I didn't identify with the fandom yet). More recently—in the later months of 2012—I made another anthropomorphic character. This time, he was a fox. Officially, his race was Foxkin, even though—if I remember correctly—the official D&D description of Foxkin is much more human-looking than anthro. But I put that label on him to make it easier.
Going back in time a bit, to 2010, I was turned on to Renard's music by an online friend. I'd always loved electronic music, so I fell in love with his work immediately. Again, I knew about furries at this point, so I wasn't terribly confused when I saw anthros on the covers of his albums. My thoughts on this were essentially just, "Oh, he's a furry. Neat..." It was through Renard that I got my first taste of what furries were actually like. I had heard many of the misconceptions of the fandom, although I was very skeptical about them. I didn't believe that furries were nothing but a bunch of zoophiles or perverts, but I had never really encountered any to know what they were actually like. After hearing Renard's music and reading some of the things he wrote on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, I was amazed at how passionate he was about his music. I saw comments by other furries, and they were all so nice, and came off as very interesting people. So I gradually became exposed to furries and the massive amounts of creativity and passion found in the fandom, although I was still looking in from the outside.
Another thing that influenced me was some experiences on Omegle, of all places. Out of sheer curiosity one day, I typed "furries" into the little interests bar on Omegle, wondering who I'd meet. It was here that I first heard the question, "asfo?" Thankfully, many furries stayed to talk even though I identified as human. The ones that did were incredibly friendly, and honestly didn't come off as strange at all. And if they did, it was entirely the good kind of strange. It was on Omegle that I also encountered my first yiffers. When they asked if I wanted to yiff, I politely declined, but I was astonished to find that some of them were happy to stay and just talk to me. Again, I found that, in spite of being a little more... frisky than the other furs, most of them were perfectly nice, loving, intelligent people.
I suppose I officially became a furry myself in January of 2013. All these experiences basically culminated in a small drawing I did on a whim one day, depicting me as an anthropomorphic fox. At that point, I officially decided that I was a furry. Shortly after, I joined the forums. What I found here was a wonderful community of friendly, loving, supportive, and creative individuals. The positivity I've felt from this community is practically unparalleled. People aren't afraid to be themselves, which is something I find truly amazing. It warms my heart to see it. I don't foresee myself leaving this fandom anytime soon, no matter what anyone outside the fandom says or thinks. I'm very open with my furryness on Facebook, because I know that anyone who unfriends me because of it simply isn't worth being friends with. So far, nobody has. In fact, some of them even enjoy it. Sure, I've had some post a few jokes about it, but I would see them in real life and they'd treat me with respect and friendliness just like they did before I was a furry.
So yeah, there's my novel. That's why I'm a furry.
Topic: Why are you a furry?! :))) (Read 2641 times)