gatekeeping is dumb and if you don’t delight in teaching newcomers about your favorite things, then why are those things even your favorite
One of my favorite memories is when I was in middle school or early high school it was like 2002/2003 I bought a Squee shirt from Johnny the Homocidal Maniac and I didn’t know what it was at the time, I just thought the creepy cute art was nice. And when I was at state band tryouts a girl saw my shirt and was like “Oh! I love your shirt, JtHM is the best!” And I responded with, “I don’t know what that is, I didn’t know this was from something.”
And instead of her going “omg. fake fan” or something else negative she got all excited to tell me about it and that I should start reading the books.
It stuck with me that she was jazzed about sharing and didn’t put me down for my ignorance. I wish I had gotten her name now in hindsight.
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Don0303 