In this first post of fandom memories, I thought I'd talk about one of my favorite songs to come out of the brony fandom that's not only hit me super emotionally once, or twice, but three times over the timespan of nearly 8 years. Forest Rain's music has been one of my favorites and Great To Be Different holds a special place in my heart.
I've divided this into three parts on when this song hit me.

1) Discovery: 
It was around July 2013. I had been a brony for 5 months at that point and was diving into fandom activities. Most of which was fan animation and pony parodies. But after watching the top ten pony videos list I noticed the honorable mention was BronyDanceParty's animation to the song Great To Be Different by Forest Rain. Needless to say I watched it and have never felt more joyful to have a fandom anthem tell me that it's okay to be who you want to be. I had felt kinda insecure at 15 years old watching my little pony. But that song especially told me it's okay to be different, it's okay to accept yourself of who you are. I didn't loop back until around 2015 to where I had started following a number of brony musicians and really started to dig into Forest Rain's music.

2) It comes in full circle: by around 2018 to early 2019 I had displayed my musical talents as a drummer/percussionist. I made drum covers to some songs from the Friendship Is Magic series (Which I later coined the name drumming is magic) as well as some of my favorite non-fandom music. The thing is that I was eager to play on stage with an artist being the drummer. Flash forward to spring of 2019, I had received a message from my friend Drummershy saying that Forest Rain was looking for a drummer to play for Everfree Northwest in May of that year. I sent a very welcoming message introducing myself and in turn was given a compliment saying that she really enjoys my drumming and would love to have me on the drum kit. As a fan of Forest Rain's music and looking over the setlist for the concert I was super excited to play some songs I listened to over the years while also playing some new songs. I sat down and Practiced, and I mean....PRACTICED to make sure I was going to make this concert something special (no pun intended :-)
Great To Be Different was one of the songs in the set and my heart was ready to melt. As simple of song it is to play, the emotional impact it gave me over the years listening to one of my favorite fandom songs brought more ambition for me to make this concert memorable for everyone. 
Here's a glimpse of that concert: https://youtu.be/PT4sE386xX4
Forest Rain and I developed a strong friendship ever since then and has considered me as her drummer for now on. 

3) It's comes in full circle A SECOND TIME: The third trip of the song Great To Be Different comes more recently over a two year span. 
In summer of 2020, I went down to my friend's recording studio at Wolf Sound Fresno where I had also tracked the Miscommunication drum cover and a live version of the song River by Slightly Amiss and Djhon Mema (which has yet to happen). In between that I was approached my now close friend Lamoni as he wanted to throw together his own great to be different cover. This first idea didn't end up going through, but I still held onto the multi tracks from that session. Flash Forward to around April 2022 I get word from Forest Rain Directly that she's inspired to work on a 10 year anniversary of Great To Be Different. Without hesitation I sent the multi tracks from this session and production started to take off.
To put in perspective of how much joy I had when tracking this in 2020 originally as a cover and then ultimately for as a 10 year remake...It's just too real to even speak. 
Here is a result of the 10 year anniversary of Great To Be Different. 

At the end of the day. Forest Rain will continue to inspire me, and this song has definitely carried me over the years. 
Thank you all for reading this.