What have I been doing with my life?

[ManaMinori 4,145]

Do you guys think that there will ever come a day when you wake up and look back at your years in the fandom, and ask yourself "what have I been doing with my life?" We spend so much time debating or outright arguing over pastel ponies, collecting ponies, watching pony shows, creating pony content- and while it is all from enjoyment and passion, will we one day look back on it all when we're old and grey, and just wonder "why was so much of my life put into this"? 

Can you see yourselves liking pony as much as you do now, when you're Granny Smith's age?

[Breite Wiese 95]

I've often wondered the same thing myself. What will MLP mean to me when I'm older? Will the fandom still be going or not? If so, will I still be interested in it?

Right now, I can say that I hope it keeps going, but who knows what will change in the future. Maybe thirty years from now, there will be a totally different cartoon with a totally different fandom. We'll look back on this one and it will probably bring a lot of nostalgia for some people. I got into MLP in 2015. I wish I could've earlier on when it first emerged. 

One thing I'm hoping for is that this fandom lasts for years to come if possible. Let's savor every minute of it and let's keep the fandom strong.

[Dreambiscuit 9,691]

When I'm a fan of something I tend to remain a fan always. Even if I become less rabid about it, I still appreciate all a fandom has given me and how it's helped shape me into the person I have become. Life is full of so many different things that we'll latch onto and benefit from. MLP will always be a source of inspiration and, as years pass by, nostalgia for this point in life and who we were when we encountered it. Wherever we may go and whatever we may become, MLP is now part of us, and a welcome addition it is! 

[Lenny 249]

Eh the pony videos I make on my channel will be there forever. Unless I get banned of course. But it's just a landmark of when I was a brony and the stuff it helped me get through

[Cl0udChaser 3,006]

I have the same thing in my mind about this. My life will still carry on but I always be part of this fandom. I have plans that I want to do in the future. This fandom is the best I have ever been to. I have pony fan songs in my list that I can listen in the future. I don't know if the fandom going alive still or dead.

[cmarston1 5,959]

Well this is a pretty depressing topic.

Thanks for that.

[Le Trotteur Sauvage 13,051]

I Thought about way before joining mlp fandom. It's a question I've always asked to myself. Why am I doing this, why can't I just be normal ? About work, about my personality, about everything I do in general.

But you what friend ? This question, it's bullshit man. What are we doing with our life is our own business, and if you think that you're wasting your time, well, quit and move on to something else, nobody forced you to be here. The thing is...you said that to yourself because you see that every body is not doing it, so maybe you just thought that, I don't know it was not normal or something like that.

Don't  think that the norm, is the normality, you're a ponyfan, it may no be forever sure but, if it makes you happy, well go for it. And you'll be old, ( Granny Smoth style), you'll speak to yourself and say "man that was really good old time !"

[SugarCoatxMarblePie 701]

John Lennon noted, “Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.”

[Brony Number 42 10,069]

I see people leave the fandom because they out grow it. I think if you get in to it when you are older then you are more likely to stay.  By the time you are like 25 you are set in what you know you like.

[Steve Piranha 29,424]

I wonder about that sometimes, but I don't think I'd ever regret it. It's... let's say, the love part that kept me alive in my recently over dark times, as most of the things that kept me alive was hate and a desire to get even 

[LunarShadow 397]

I can see myself enjoying Gen 4 of MLP in my later years of life just like i enjoy it now. I don't have too many regrets regarding my time spent in the fandom. The only thing i do regret is how cringy i was when i first got into it years ago but since that time i have matured a tremendous amount and i see this show and its fandom as nothing more than a passively enjoyable experience. I bear no burden admitting i enjoy my time here and i will continue to do so. The show is fun and interesting and provides a healthy means of relieving stress and anxiety and this forum has a lot of good people on it that are fun to talk to. There is no shame in any of that. 

[GrimGrimoire 4,973]

There are a lot of things I will look back upon in life and say "what the hell was I doing with my life".... but MLP won't be one of them.

And when I am old and grey I'll still like the show, although who knows what form it will take at the point and time?

[LunarShadow 397]

4 minutes ago, GrimGrimoire said:

There are a lot of things I will look back upon in life and say "what the hell was I doing with my life".... but MLP won't be one of them.

And when I am old and grey I'll still like the show, although who knows what form it will take at the point and time?

I have a feeling when i am that old i will still watch the show for Nostalgia and re-read the masterpieces on FimFiction assuming FimFiction is even still a thing 50 years from now. 

[Snow 7,033]

I believe there will come a time when I am no longer interested in the show, later still the community, right now I don't know when either of those will happen but in a long time I can tell I will look back at these times and think highly of them, it is and has been a lot of fun, better still the moral messages within the show and some of the people I have met in the fandom have been very inspirational and influential in my life, I'm working towards my aspirations as well, so I don't think much of my time is being wasted here at all.

[Techno Universal 2,575]

Well from dreams that took place in the years 2030-2050 I was looking back to see the brony fandom as the very beginning of the great project. I apparently created the ponies to mentor us into a perfect future and it ended up saving us from our own grief in the end.

[Jeric 46,851]

On 5/24/2017 at 1:55 AM, Nightmare Muffin said:

Do you guys think that there will ever come a day when you wake up and look back at your years in the fandom, and ask yourself "what have I been doing with my life?"

About a show or fandom? No. I've had that feeling after years in finance and project operations. I have never gotten that feeling from a hobby or activity related to entertainment. 

Perhaps because shows and fandom don't define me or my life. At this point in my life, neither does my career. Friends and family do. 

Also pistachios. 

 

[Meeps 297]

2 hours ago, Jeric said:

About a show or fandom? No. I've had that feeling after years in finance and project operations. I have never gotten that feeling from a hobby or activity related to entertainment. 

Perhaps because shows and fandom don't define me or my life. At this point in my life, neither does my career. Friends and family do. 

Also pistachios. 

 

Pretty much came here to say this, but @Jeric did it perfectly well.

The only time I regretted something I was a fan of was a shoddy online game I spent way too much time and energy on. I was young enough that it was forgiveable, and I learned to be wiser with my time and how I spend it!

[NotoriousSMALL 1,984]

No, not really at all. I don't care, but it does kind of blow my mind that the show has been going on for so long, I wonder if it'll go on for a whole decade.

Although it only feels like so long to me because I started watching in middle school and now I'm in college, so a good fraction of my young life.

[BlueStreak98 828]

Being the cool uncle who will watch MLP with you is like... my goal. I hope I am still into this years into the future.

[Guest]

I'm already questioning everything I enjoy and wonder what exactly makes it so special and why I even like anything, so it'll inevitably happen with MLP too. I kind of already am wondering why I keep coming back for the show even when I've told myself to stop watching - it probably tells that the interest isn't going to go anywhere anytime soon.

[KatonRyu 1,033]

There are lots of things in my life on which I look back and think 'what the hell was wrong with me?' even now and I'm only 26. One day I might look back on this and wonder what I was thinking, but in this case I don't think something like that will happen. I'm still looking back fondly on my time in the Pokemon fandom and I still count myself as a Pokemon fan even today, and not just the games, either. Fandoms are parts of my life that I really enjoy, and I don't think I'll ever consider time I enjoyed spending to be wasted.

[Moony the Cat 3,702]

Since i am a Furry, i will very surely love Cartoons about talking Animals forever. I also dont think i would ever look back and ask myself why i spend so much time with Mlp, there is just not that much other Stuff that im interested in, besides cute Cartoon Animals. So...i wouldnt have anything else to do anyway.

[Guest]

Not really, I'm more of a go with the flow guy, so I don't mind my decisions too much.

[AlbaTross 1,586]

Umm...I'm almost 30 and still a fan, so hard to say.  If I do stop being a fan then I'll just pack up all my pony stuff in a box...or maybe boxes as I've accumulated enough of it, and move on with my life.  The time for doubt was when we chose whether to become Bronies or not.  In fact, I did have such a moment of doubt and thought to myself, "no, I can't like this show, what will people think?"  I ultimately came to the conclusion that life is too short to waste any thought on such frivolous nonsense and if I want to like a little girl's show about pastel coloured horses then I will.  

I decided years ago that if I want to enjoy something then I will because as far as I'm concerned denying myself experiences I want to have is not the way to live.  People may place a lot of importance on accomplishments, but if I die knowing I spent most of my life dreading waking up every morning then I will die feeling unfulfilled no matter how many fancy pieces of paper or promotions or any number of things I might have under my belt.  It's important to push oneself, but it's just as important to at least try to live the life you want to live, and enjoy what you enjoy no matter how dumb it might seem to other people.

[J-115 29]

Frankly, before I got into MLP it had been a very long time since I had enjoyed a piece of media so much. I've spent the last year and a half - the length of time I've been a fan of MLP:FiM - devoting what is doubtlessly an abnormal amount of time and thought to this children's show, but I don't regret it for an instant. It puts a big smile on my face and that's the bottom line.

When I'm old and gray, I'll probably dust off the box I keep all my pony BD-R's in and watch them again. I've loved pony episodes consistently enough over the last year and a half to be convinced that this is a show I'll always like.