On MLP - My Story · 12:20pm Oct 22nd, 2019
So, it's been a little over a week since the show ended now, and I thought I'd do a little blog post on how MLP has impacted me over the last few years.
I suppose I should start at the beginning, and how I got into pony. It was, I believe, March 2013. I was studying politics in university and was about halfway through my first year. And, by Celestia, I was having a miserable time. I enjoyed the courses, but hated campus life. I'd never really been away from home before, and wasn't exactly the most outgoing of people, so I was getting hit pretty hard by both homesickness and feeling lonely. Worse still, despite being the quiet introvert on the academically demanding course, I drew the short straw when it came to accommodation, ending up with a bunch of partiers straight out of clearing. I'd hoped that after Freshers Week things would calm down, but the constant loud parties never stopped, nor did the messes they left behind. I'd get up every morning for 9am lectures to find bottles on every surface, the curtains and rails ripped down, and once even full bin bags stuffed into the toilet. Eventually, after having something of a near breakdown, the university authorities found me another dorm to live in with some people in second or third year, but it knocked my confidence badly, and I isolated myself.
It was during this point, in early March, after winter break, that I was in my room, surfing the web. I think I was on YouTube, having a bit of a nostalgia trip watching old kids TV like Arthur and the like. As this was before YouTube went to the dogs, you often found rabbit holes on the suggested videos tab, and it was through this that I came across an episode of pony; 'Applebuck Season' if I remember correctly. Maybe that's why I still maintain that AJ is best pony.
Anyway, I watched the episode, thinking it would be funny, and planning to laugh at the simplistic storylines that would be just above Teletubbies. Instead, I actually didn't mind it. And then, as so many of us did, I decided to watch the next episode.
And then I watched another.
By the end of the day, I'd gotten a good way through Season 1 and was hooked. I was able to find this nice little bit of fun in my otherwise difficult world. I soon came across the likes of Equestria Daily, and of course FiMfiction, which I discovered via EQD. I actually came here following a link to the first HiE story I ever read 'Hands', which I believe is still on here. It would be a little while yet before I would make an account, and another couple of months before I posted the first few chapters of 'My Family and Other Equestrians'. In the interim, I was basically Dash in the Season 2 'Read It and Weep' when it came to anyone finding out about my new hobby. I eventually told my parents when I went down to Bristol for an MLP day at a Forbidden Planet store, and despite me being a nervous wreck, they just accepted it. My sister thought it was funny as hell when she found out, but my folks just shrugged it off.
After that, I saw my first season live. I'd just missed the end of Season 3 when I got into pony, and the internet was going mad about the then terrifying notion of Twilight Sparkle having wings. I still remember waiting for videos to drop on YouTube, since my internet is, and remains, too slow to run streams without problems. Season 4 was a great introduction and ensured my continued love for the show.
I also attended the UK convention BUCK twice over the years, and I believe a couple of people reading this might remember running into me there. Sadly I never did have the cash or free time to go to any of the US cons. Although I think that's probably for the best, considering I don't do so well in big crowds.
But the time MLP really helped me out was not so long ago. About a year ago now, I applied successfully to join the police and underwent six months of training. Without going into too much detail, I can say that they are a bunch of incompetent, lazy, inbred hicks . They came up with the notion that I had some autistic traits. Now, that doesn't stop you from being in the police at all, but it was apparently decided by the training staff, all of whom hadn't been on the beat since before PACE was a thing, that I shouldn't pass the course. Suddenly everything I did was wrong, and I was put through a serious wringer with more than a little gaslighting going on. Plenty of actual officers, out in the real world, told me they thought I'd be well suited to CID or the computer side of things, which was what I was aiming for. But plod train people to be beat cops first, so if you aren't cut out to deal with drunks on a Saturday night, you don't go anywhere.
The long and short of it is that I had a major episode as a result. I ended up in a really bad place with some dark thoughts going around in my head. In response, my employers damn near sectioned me under the Mental Health Act. I was pulled out of my car, taken to the ground, handcuffed and had to have my little sister come to drive me home, because they wouldn't give me the keys.
Understandably, I have a few issues now with talking about my mental health.
Luckily, both MLP and its fandom were there to help. I actually left a rather sad and emo blog post I made up on here. The kind, encouraging comments, offering a listening ear from strangers I'd never met, help keep me going when times get tough. And the week after I handed in my notice, telling the Filth precisely what they could do with their mental health action plan, I spent watching episodes, helping me deal with the depression and occasional dark thought. In terms of the show, I felt like Sunburst when he dropped out of magic school.
But thanks to that, I bounced back. I'm much better now, back in work, and doing reasonably well. I'm considering applying to the RAF next year for an officer position, and am also keeping an eye out for some IT jobs that may be coming up at my current job.
That's twice in my life that MLP has helped me get through difficult times. Now, I'm sure some people outside the fandom will call that sad, or gay, or autistic, or whatever the current go to insult is these days (on that front, I do love the occasional times MLP crops up on Reddit and we get lumped in with both furries and fedora wearing neckbeards), but I don't really care. MLP made me happy at times where I was near the end of my rope and helped me rally and push through.
And you know what? That's good enough for me.
Watch out for those RAF IT jobs.
Some of them dont use PCs.
5143646 Haha. I was thinking trying for something like air operations officer, ground based or AWACS, or maybe look into the intelligence side of things.
5143673
Depending on the system upgrades, late 90s early 00s weather interfaces used Amiga because as they said, something goes wrong, all they do is trip the reboot, and the full system reboot, initilisation, aquisition and stable operation achieved takes about 30 seconds.
That, and because theres no inbuilt security in the core, means people take how it works with the outside world extremely seriously. That, and it runs very happily without knowing how to execute PC virus executables. Which if you think about it, is a pretty useful function for a IT/Security rig to have?
5143676 On a similar note, I remember reading somewhere that Microsoft had to introduce security updates for Windows XP because the Government of Denmark refused to upgrade their systems due to cost. Hell, when I was in the police, using the PNC to run number plates and persons was like going back to the 80's. If you stop and think about it though, one of the best defences against malware is to have a system so old, the malware can't run on it. Either that, or use Linux.