"He'll grow out of it"

I like how my dad brushes off my association with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic by saying "he'll grow out of it eventually". He cites two prior fandoms I'd been part of as proof that FIM will fall out of my favour one day.
He cites Love Hina and "Timmy-Two-Tone" (his nickname for Fairly OddParents.
The reason that I stopped watching Love Hina and sold my 14-volume manga collection was because I became disillusioned with Akamatsu Ken's wild take on the tsundere archetype in the form of Narusegawa Naru. She almost came across as a violent sociopath at times towards Urashima Keitarō (the main character of Love Hina), and she ended up marrying him in the end, with no hint that her violent tendencies towards him (and only him, might I add) would end.
As for Fairly OddParents, the simple fact of the matter is that the show just is not interesting for me anymore. The characters are unlikeable at best, the plotlines are no longer inspired, and I just plain moved on from FOP. Their live-action movies were probably their Equestria Girls, only I never bothered to watch said live-action films, while I merely found EqG... average. In hindsight, the show had reached its peak around 2004-ish, and has been on a slump ever since.
Will I be a brony forever?
I doubt it.
But I'm not going to act like every day as a brony will be my last. I know that I'll move on one day ("grow out of it", as my Dad puts it), look back on my years as a brony with some mix of fondness and embarrassment, maybe watch the earlier seasons to reclaim some old fondness for the show... but I don't honestly see those days in my immediate future. I would like to think that I'll watch the show earnestly until the day that Hasbro pulls the plug, but knowing my odds, the creators will pull some trick in the next few seasons that will push me back so hard that I will want to leave and not come back.
I won't treat my time as a brony with such fear for the future, though.
If "growing out of it" means leaving such an awesome fandom, I want to stay here in Neverland.

Comments

[Avenging-Hobbits]

Amen bro.

Amen.

[Alchemystudent]

I'm much the same way, although a little different in that I will probably stay with the brony fandom for a while, much like how I am still a part of DBZ,Gargoyles, Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Comics, Star Trek, KH (wich I kind of just now realized how much I missed it.), Star Wars, and Sonic fandoms. I know what's going to happen, I'll find something else to add and to love to my growing list, but most likely, I'll come back to watch some of the episodes and movies or read some of the fanfics again to enjoy.

Heck, by then, I'll probably intoduce my kids to it when G8 rolls around and see them love it.

I won't treat my time as a brony with such fear for the future, though.
If "growing out of it" means leaving such an awesome fandom, I want to stay here in Neverland.

I think, I'll take it with me.