December Daily: Rip Fan Winkle

coffeeandink - "You took a break from fandom for a few years. Now that you're back, what's changed and what's stayed the same?"

I've been looking forward to this one, because hoo boy.

I began my break in 2014. Some things in my life were difficult (a move to a new state, a new career, a new level of financial responsibility as the spouse went back to school, commuter marriage), and apparently my participation in fandom had been springing from a surplus of energy and wasn't sustainable without it. Some things in my life were sad (mostly the death of my father), and apparently my participation in fandom had also required a surplus of joy, which I just didn't have. Also I had sleep apnea and didn't know it. So I was around, but I wasn't putting much in and I wasn't getting much out.

I gotta tell you, Yuletide brought me so much pleasure and comfort in that time. Short gen in fandoms I had no clue about -- that seems to have been the sweet spot.

I could feel that part of myself beginning to wake up this year. (Weirdly enough, the pandemic contributed to my strategic solitude reserves getting refilled.)

So what's changed?

Entire fandoms rose, and in some cases fell. I came back and people I loved were writing stuff I'd never heard of. (Schitt's Creek? Killing Eve? Stranger Things? It?) There was a really intimidating amount of new canon in MCU and Star Wars. And of course Sherlock and Game of Thrones had built up a large amount of momentum and used it to hurl themselves off cliffs.

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