Aw thanks man, glad to know your family was kind to you as well! When I first came here I wasn't sure how comfortable I was with being a brony... Since then, I have become a pony status (1500+ posts), made tons of wonderful friends, come out of the brony closet to some of my friends as well as my mother now, and actually become much more open to accepting others (went from hating furries to now having a bunch of furry friends and debating about trying to get into the fandom myself, hell even having a friend of mine turn my ponysona Midnight into a full-fledged anthro though I have always liked the whole idea of anthro, and not in the pervy way though there is nothing wrong with it)! It is so nice to have such a wonderful group of people to be myself with and enjoy hanging out together, and while we may not be the biggest or most outspoken fan club, we have something the Rarity fan club will never have; Easily the nicest, most understanding, and overall most wonderful group of people under the moon (I'd say sun but, hey, Luna for the win <3). Thank you all for everything you have done and said, you are all a wonderful group of people, thanks so much for accepting me into this little group!
(Note, I was not aiming to offend any Rarity fans, they are a lovely bunch and I still do like popping over there from time to time, it is just that no other FC has nearly as many posts as your guys' lol)