---

After I made this status, it hit me.

A feeling that is very difficult to describe in words.

Multiple things simultaneously ran through my mind. About how important this site, the show, and the fandom is to me. Just that feeling alone you saw in my status update about how much I loved seeing the MLG Forums banner, and even the Comic Sans text, was enough to kickstart these thoughts... (and sure it was funny but the reason is more than that).

It's easy to see just how much the staff care about this site - and no I don't just mean because of the funny theme on April Fool's Day, I mean every day. And it is easy to see how much of a community we really are for each other. I love that. And I love MLP Forums so much.

I've been a brony since late December 2013. I've been a member here since late June 2014. And I'll never leave. I want MLP:FIM, the fandom, and MLP Forums to continue to be a part of my life for years and years to come. It became a part of my life out of fortunate happenstance. And so I know that because it was serendipity that ultimately brought me here, and that it has led me to become a better person in real life... and of course, it has led me also to my current boyfriend , and we've been dating through Skype for 6 months now.

---

Some others, if they were in the shoes I'm in now, might say something about what their life would be like right now if they hadn't found the show.

Well, I'm not going to even ask myself that, because guess what, it did happen. And I couldn't be more glad that it did. I thank God for leading the way.

I will, however, tell you one thing.

Before I found the show I was falling. It was a bad time for me. First semester of my freshman year of college - Fall of 2013 - took a toll on my emotions. I am a very sensitive person, and I always have been. Leaving home to live in a dorm... *Sigh* Leaving home was the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life. Now, I know that homesickness is natural, but let me give you a comparison to really show you what I mean...

Three other friends from my small country hometown also chose to come to the same college as I did. Two of them barely showed any signs of homesickness at all. One showed a little - after about 2 weeks away from home you could tell that he was homesick, but it wasn't totally obvious.

What about me? How long was I okay before it hit me? The first 3 days were okay. Soon as that weekend came around, it hit me. And since my roommate at that time was always out doing stuff with his friends, he was rarely ever there. So there I was. Alone in my dorm. And the homesickness grew slowly over time. There were times where it would fade away, but then a day or two later come right back, and not from the start - no, from the level it left me.

Halloween was the most emotional time I ever had. To be completely honest, I should just say all of October was. Anyway, when Halloween rolled around, I sat in my dorm alone, watching some of my favorite old Halloween movies from when I was a little kid. So many tears...

Then, Thanksgiving break wasn't enough time at home.

And then once I came back to finish off the rest of December, that is what I was referring to above, when I said "I was falling. It was a bad time for me..." I actually began starting to feel numb emotionally. No emotions. No happiness nor sadness. Just numb. And it was growing. I think the best way to describe it was that I felt stale, and the staleness was increasing each day.

Towards the end of December, what a miraculous Godsend did I receive...

I'll leave out the irrelevant (to the point of this blog) story of how I found it...

But I found My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Curiously, and on the basis that I really didn't have anything else to lose by that time because of how down I felt, I sat down and watched the pilot episodes.

Once I had watched them, I knew instantly that this was going to change my life. Though, I didn't know in what way, other than the obvious - that it would help to pull me out of the numbness, and fill my emotion center back up. My spirit was lifted.

The truth about how it was able to do that for me is that it revived my inner child, and as well it brought out my loving side.

For 6 months I kept it totally hidden. Nobody knew. And that includes online as well.

Finally I had to find an online community to talk to people. So I found MLP Forums with a mere Google search.

---

Flashing forward back to present time now...

I can tell you with absolute certainty that nothing will ever pull me away from here, nor the show.

I never really did adapt in such a way that I could consider my dorm room my "new home"... but with My Little Pony, and MLP Forums, that's okay, because now I can consider them my "new home."

---

All of you... mean so much to me... and so I just want to thank you, and let you know, from the bottom of my heart, that I care dearly about every one of you. This site has given me more than I could have ever asked for.

~ Miles