Would you do it?: Going back

[DarkSun493 51]

As I'm sure y'all know, there are plenty of "how did you get here" and "what MLP has done for you" topics here. I'm not necessarily here for the positive. I assume that many are content and happy that they are Bronies, and that their life is, in some way, better than it was before. I'm not asking about that. If you could go back in time, at this moment, would you change it so you never would "discover" MLP? I know this may sound preposterous to you. "But MLP is so positive and good for the soul", "I've made so many friends in this community and I'm happy" "why would I ever want to change all of this?"

 

Well, take my side of the story before you respond. Before I became a Brony, my life wasn't so bad. I never really worried about stepping outside of the norm or challenging the common view at all. I never questioned my decisions. Ponies was the only decision I thought back on. The show is one aspect, providing a sort of escape from reality, but the community was different. Over time, I felt a pressure to become something I wasn't. I felt pressured to buy all of these material items in order to become a "better Brony". Before you think any more, this is what I felt from others; it was nothing I had ever heard. And once I was here, I only questioned my actions more: "who am I?, "what do I represent?" "what to others think of me?". Though this may be a malady of being a teenager, I think it was only more aggregated by being a Brony. Ignorance is bliss, after all. True, I've met some people here, but they sometimes only confuse me more, never providing a clear answer to a problem. But that may just be me...

 

So, tell me what you think. Tell me what you would do. I would go back. I would want to change it so I could live in ignorance for at least a while longer. Try to change a doubter if you can, but remember that your actions may just complement my theory... 

[Doctor XFizzle 8,651]

I wouldn't change a thing because MLP only comprises like 5% of the happenings in my life. It's a side dish of dessert in the banquet that is my essence.

[Concerto Dusk 240]

in all honesty, my life sucked, mlp gives me a reason to keep going, i dont pay attention to what others think of me, i am a brony and i am proud to have something like mlp in my life

[Celtore 2,769]

While the image of me the tackling past me out of my office chair is amusing, I would probably just watch the events play out. While me becoming a brony was an accident and I was trying to stay in the middle between brony and hater, I think it was an accident for the better.

Edited January 25, 2014 by Celtore

[Scootalove 10,684]

I wouldn't go back and change a thing at all, the show really does give me a reason to keep going.

[Acchan 232]

In all honesty, I'm not sure. I don't go much for buying all the pony items (I'm what you call a non-material brony), but the issue is the tension it causes between me and my mother. Sometimes I question if being a brony was worth it.

[Seaweed 596]

Wouldn't change a thing. I've never been to worried about what folks think about me. I tend to leave a trail of DGAF in my footprints,

[Koelath 444]

If you let it get to a point where you felt compelled to conform to some arbitrary 'brony' identity, that is entirely a fault of your own being. You should do away with that sort of thinking as soon as possible. And ignorance is not bliss at all. That's just what people say when they can't handle something real.

 

As for me, I have no need to wish away my discovery of the show. It's a good show.

 

[Cimarronboy 247]

I don't think I can. When I converted it seems now more destined than a choice. I know for a fact I was torn on the inside about mlp. I'd see merch of some sort; (outside) someone please burn it! (inside) I gotta know more!. Didn't help when I had an older gen toy when I was 4. If I did it'd be there that I'd go but that'd be a start to all the changes I'd make. Everything in this moment would cease existing and yet the effort might just end up being futile (though ponies are worth it).

[Deesinn 393]

No, because it's just a TV show, and it's just a community I'm apart of.  I don't hold it any higher than that.  This pressure to fit in or to buy stuff is imaginary, we don't care what you do and don't do, just do whatever you want to do. 

Edited January 25, 2014 by Deesinn

[Azura 1,107]

Even if you do prevent yourself from discovering MLP, there's no avoiding it. It's everywhere on the Internet and you'll just become one of us again. Unless you truly have a passion for hating MLP, I doubt you'll be able to avoid it any longer than a month of two.

 

As long as you're on the Internet, you'll always see ponies. Ponies everywhere.

[DubWolf 16,606]

Nope, if anything, I'd make it so I became a brony much earlier (as early as season 2)! I didn't know what I've been missing when I randomly saw ponies on YouTube or as memes. I enjoy the new friends I've made here and how it's added to my list of interests so I'm not an "un-interested" person all the time (that doesn't watch a lot of TV shows when the topic comes up).

 

In all honesty, I'm not sure. I don't go much for buying all the pony items (I'm what you call a non-material brony), but the issue is the tension it causes between me and my mother. Sometimes I question if being a brony was worth it.

But it is worth it! Although you brought trouble with mom, you've also brought some more friendship into your life (pun is intended). Not to mentioned you've written a few stories already, so you've managed to add one more way to express yourself... cheezits, idk, I'm not in your socks.

 

Can't you just become a closet brony so mom would stop?

Edited January 25, 2014 by Wingin'Wolf

[Mio Akiyama 145]

I honestly don't know. I did make like two friends because of mlp, but honestly, I don't think I really belong with the fandom. I'm so different from most bronies. In fact, if someone were to find out that I watched mlp they'd be like... What? And guess what? They were thrown off by that statement. Honestly, even if I didn't decide to give it a chance, my life would still be the same.

[GenderIsAnIllusion 2,177]

I will quantify my answer in the following equation:

 

X = 0

 

Where X are the chances that id do that.

[Sir Hugsalot 8,621]

I would not. MLP is great way to deal with stress (and sometimes I am exposed to lots of it) and also it's fun to watch. And bronies? I have many great friends among them. Without MLP I'd never know them

[Fluttershyfan94 5,738]

MLP changed me, my life and my attitude. It made me full of life again, the world just became a lot less gray and I'd never go back. The show and fandom have given me a lot.

[Mlpfan185 1,763]

Something was here. Something was here. Something was here. 

Edited October 10, 2018 by NONAME

[ReverseFaller 2,483]

Hell no, I'd never go back.

 

Sure before ponies I still had anime, but my whole world has become different in the past year or so of me being a brony. MLP has strengthened my friendship several people, which is nice.

[Unikitty 1,211]

Nope. Not even to keep me in the dark an episode later.
I love this fandom. I love the culture it has become, and the materials it creates. I love the people I've met via FiM, and I love the people I am still very much friends with, due to an FiM encounter.
This series inspires me in my artwork, and it inspires me in my attitude towards the world. Never would I want to remove something that has positively influenced who I am.

Were I to go back, the only change I'd make is to get into the fandom earlier, and become a solid contributor to it.

[Envy 5,998]

Well, I'm not a Brony, and the show hasn't really had that big of an effect on my life. So what is there to go back and change? I'd just be depriving myself of a cartoon I really enjoy watching. I see no reason whatsoever to do so.

[iPoptart 5]

I wouldn't change a thing because MLP only comprises like 5% of the happenings in my life. It's a side dish of dessert in the banquet that is my essence.

My whole view exactly. I need this on a bumper sticker it was so well said.

[DarkSun493 51]

I want to flip this around, and ask if you would. Would you? Before you answer, here is my proposal. You essentially said, in so many words, that emerging from ignorance was causing you discomfort.

 

So what kind of ignorance? That question is redundant. Let me make my point simply.

 

Every, single, good, useful, trait, you pick up in your life, requires some amount of discomfort. Do you want to be in shape? That requires dietary control and exercise? Do you want to paint? Prepare to spend long hours with cramped hands and tired feet. Perhaps you want a girlfriend/boyfriend, their problems become your problems. Never escape the discomfort, that is the feeling of stone being chiseled into art.

 

Am I saying that is what you are experiencing due to MLP? No. MLP is a cartoon. You are amongst one of the friendliest groups of people on this omniscient, light-speed cyber connection we call the Internet.

I like what you said. Discomfort shapes people, right. Well, I have obviously felt discomfort, but I don't feel any better as a person; if anything, I feel like less of a person. 

Ignorance, ignorance of ponies and the community is what I'm referring to. I believe that my life would be better and more stable without it, you'll see. 

The way I see it, I feel betrayed. A group of people on the Internet aiming to spread happiness, and yet I feel NO happiness. I don't blame the individual here for their actions, but I feel that I was mislead. Every Brony that has come here seems to leave happier, yet I am not. I feel that becoming one also is betraying myself. Before I came here, I felt relatively happy, but here, it seems to have sucked the life out of me. Even if you look back on previous responses of this topic, I feel blamed for something that really isn't my fault. If I think I was pressured into doing something I didn't want to, that's my belief; you can't change that. And when I look at some of the topics in the "life advice" section, it only makes me more confused. I doubt my actions, and that only leads to confusion and unhappiness.

As a generalization, I feel that being here has only lead to unhappiness, though because of what I think other Bronies are and how they act. I feel uncomfortable of the fact that others are happy, but I am not, though I feel I should be. I feel that I was lied to.

[Deesinn 393]

I like what you said. Discomfort shapes people, right. Well, I have obviously felt discomfort, but I don't feel any better as a person; if anything, I feel like less of a person. 

Ignorance, ignorance of ponies and the community is what I'm referring to. I believe that my life would be better and more stable without it, you'll see. 

The way I see it, I feel betrayed. A group of people on the Internet aiming to spread happiness, and yet I feel NO happiness. I don't blame the individual here for their actions, but I feel that I was mislead. Every Brony that has come here seems to leave happier, yet I am not. I feel that becoming one also is betraying myself. Before I came here, I felt relatively happy, but here, it seems to have sucked the life out of me. Even if you look back on previous responses of this topic, I feel blamed for something that really isn't my fault. If I think I was pressured into doing something I didn't want to, that's my belief; you can't change that. And when I look at some of the topics in the "life advice" section, it only makes me more confused. I doubt my actions, and that only leads to confusion and unhappiness.

As a generalization, I feel that being here has only lead to unhappiness, though because of what I think other Bronies are and how they act. I feel uncomfortable of the fact that others are happy, but I am not, though I feel I should be. I feel that I was lied to.

 

Gee, I'd love to give you a full refund, but I don't recall anypony signing a contract stating that we, the fandom, would make you X amount happier.  I think you just feel uncomfortable here, with the whole MLP thing in general.  You're responsible for your own happiness, and I don't think you're directly blaming us for that, but that's the vibe I get.  I'm done talking about it, whatever you choose is the right choice.  Peace out dude, and good luck. 

[Harmonic Revelations 8,833]

Before I became a brony, I had zero friends, and nowhere to express my humor-related talents. I don't want to imagine a world where my humor is silent, it would be horrific beyond imagination. Everybody has had a different experience in the fandom, mine has been entirely positive. 

 

I don't know if my teenage years would be bearable without the support given to me by those from the bronydom.

Edited January 25, 2014 by Harmonic Revelations

[Mlpfan185 1,763]

Something was here. Something was here. Something was here. 

Edited October 10, 2018 by NONAME