Ponies have changed me

[Comet Tail 808]

I think the show has done a few things to me. Definitely helped me see things a lot more positive. I know a few times I might've fallen into depression had Pinkie Pie not popped into my mind with her smiles and laughter, just general enjoyment of life.

 

It's also just given me something to enjoy every day, which acts as sort of a light to fight back on oncoming darkness of depression, and reach and effect all aspects of life. Once you've learned to enjoy one thing, I guess it helps you enjoy everything else, too, kinda teaches you that positive attitude, if you're willing to learn.

 

...

By being a fan of the show, however, I've had more opportunities to make friends than I've had in years. While I don't post on here all the time and tend to lurk a little bit, I do interact plenty on here and feel I've begun to make some real friendships. I'm also a member of a forum for local Colorado pony fans that has enabled me to go to many meetups--including one I'm headed to today, with my little brother no less(we almost never hang out at all)--that have been really helpful for making friends amongst them, and just hanging out, the kind of social interaction that I crave so often but rarely get.

...

So if it's changing me at all, it's mostly in how it's enabled opportunities, opened doors for me that wouldn't have even been there otherwise, and made me a little less introverted and a lot less lonely.

 

Funny thing about meetups and stuff of that nature: I think those are the exact kinda things I'd like most, as well. Only issue is, those are also exactly the sort of thing I'm too shy to consider going to. And I'd probably just sit there awkwardly the whole time, anyways...

 

Ugh, it all reminds me of an enormous hanging swing my friend had. You stood on a platform, a good fifteen feet up and maybe thirteen feet back away from the creek - and swing about 40 feet out, and drop into the creek from about twelve over it. It was thrilling, exhillerating, but I was so scared to do it I just stood there, frozen for what may have been five minutes while holding the swing (it was a bar you hang on to), the whole time all of them telling me to hurry up and go. I didn't finally go until one of them just said to go or give it to someone else. But when I finally had the courage to go, it was thrilling.

(Hah, I went out, saw how high I was, was scared to let go, starting coming back, then saw them all and suddenly realized something when I saw their expressions: I had to drop now, or I'd be over water that's too shallow. I dropped, and softly touched the rocky creek bottom after submerging. Nick of time fit for fiction, really.)

 

Heck, now I remember, I must've been maybe 3 years old, and something similar happened with an enormous slide.

 

I hope somehow the show will give me the courage to get past those fears. Maybe being an open brony will help. Honestly I'm scared to change my current social life right now too much, but when I go out to college next year, it will be just like that moment in Rango, whole new situation, whole new setting, whole new world; and I can be anyone I want; I can be myself there. I mean, I'm myself here, just minus ponies...

 

I have a story to tell too!

 

Before I was inducted into Bronyism, as I am now, I was also a very bitter person.... The place I resided in the world had changed me, twisted my soul with tar, a consuming darkness that only turned my innocence to the worst. Where I used to live before I moved had not prepared me for the darkness I was to face in this new place, and when it did, it destroyed me. Every second that I walked upon that wretched place only made my anger worse, my sorrow deepened... By the time I had fully been stuffed with such rage, I already qualified for schizophrenia.

 

Everything I did within this place always ticked me off at some point, made me burst into anger greater than the sun's fire. Nothing consoled me, not my "friends", not my family, not virtual reality... Everything seemed pointless... All that was around me was rage, sadness, putrid trash.

 

THAT, was until I found My Little Pony. With my dreary eyes I watched each episode, one by one, absorbing the values it wished to give. By the time I had begun drawing them, I realized something. My Little Pony was the only thing in this world that could never make me angry. It was the cure that I had been waiting for after waiting four whole years in my own hell. Suddenly, I was happy for the first time in those years.

 

This sounds a lot like the Gilda I interprited from "Griffon the Brush-off". That's also a character I'm going to use for my fanfic. You know, I enjoy writing fanfic, but I also take it very seriously. A character portrayed like that, might make someone open their eyes to realize that even people like that need a chance, and might even lead to someone making a friend and getting saved from themselves.

 

Honestly, this has actually made me decide to change how I look at people. (I guess one of the biggest impacts on me has been the community, rather than the show itself.) I think just because of this, I won't be nearly so quick to judge people in the future. Of course, I've learned that many times about atheists, gays, etc., but now I can see that it even extends to "the annoying kid that trolls, spams, and runs amuck", or "the person that'll bite your face off if you get too close", etc, and so I guess it really extends to everyone.

 

Are there really people who are truly evil, or does everyone have some spark of good, deep down, that can get ignited? I think the truth is somewhere on that continuum, but this is starting to make me think there's a lot more people that need a second chance than I think.

 

Oh, and I really wish I could find the video of Pinkie group hugging everyone at the end of "Party of One" to put here...

Edited March 4, 2012 by EASA - Dr. Braun

[Mikael 46]

It has also changed me, I have been a more happier person and I have become more and more confident and feel good. And I have been more open to my friends too about stuff and been better friend with my best friend (also a brony) and are having a good time watching the show and listen to mlp related music and watching fan art with him. And just feeling happier to be apart of somthing like this community, it helps me alot when I am feeling down

[Robojot 152]

i think i have posted here before but oh well

it have changed me too. i have in general become a happier person. i have also started drawing because of mlp and i have meet some new friends, both in real life and a lot on the internet.

[shnaw 12]

Being a brony just makes me think about my actions a little bit more. Like waiting for the bus, I'll be standing in the freezing cold and hard wind. The bus arrives and you just want to get on ASAP but instead, you stop and think.... naw, i'll stand back and let the people behind me on first. It doesn't seem pony related but the general feeling of caring, hospitality and tolerance you get form the show manages to creep it's way into your life.

[Nothing392 61]

I used to have problems in school of getting homework and stuff done. Now many times I realize that getting stuff is important and should be done. I feel like I should be responsible like Twilight . Also many of people in my grade who other people dont like I'll hang out with now. For a lot of them they really dont have much wrong with them, they just have quirks that make them diferrent. MLP definetaly caused me to realize this. It just makes everything better, even I my friends don't think that's true.