I just realized...

[katia]

As some of you know, I'm currently at university taking a degree in professional writing. I've had a few things published and honestly want nothing more than to be a writer of any kind for the rest of my life. Writing is a huge part of who I am. It encompasses more than half of my waking hours.

Recently, I started writing a How I Met Your Mother sneezefic. It's not going as well as I'd hoped, because it's been so long since I've written any sort of fanfiction. I stopped to think about it, and realized it's been a couple years since I've written any at all. Then I came to a startling revelation. I remembered why I started writing in the first place. I was thirteen, and had just discovered the sneeze fetish community, and the existance of sneezefic- and fanfic itself, which I'd never even heard of before- which I thought was brilliant. I started writing Harry Potter sneezefic, which eventually turned into regular fanfiction, and then evolved into fiction without the fan, which from there expanded out into all the crazy stuff I write now.

So what I'm saying is that it's basically the sneeze fetish's fault that I want to be a writer. It's the reason I started writing; because I wanted to make Sirius Black sneeze. Essentially, my obsession with sneezing was what sent me down the road I am now on. It's basically shaped my entire life. I mean, chances are I would have realized I love to write even if I hadn't started writing sneezefic, but as it happened, that's how it started. Does that make sense?

Not that I'm complaining or anything.

So I'm wondering if anyone else has stories about how the fetish has shaped the course of their lives.

[doggo]

That's a very cool story! I wish you very much luck on that road. Writing is a wonderful thing. I hope it will hold it's place in your life, because how you describe it sounds awesome.

I don't think I have any story to tell myself though. But considering how strongly my fetish is tied to stories, I'm sure it has always given me extra motivation to use my imagination.

[The Mute Poet]

Hmmmm, this is a very interesting way of looking at everything...

I'm not sure if the fetish has shaped my life in the sense that it's been responsable for anything as overt as your writing, nnifer, but I do think it has had a pretty significant effect on my personality in general.

See, I found the forum when I was quite young as well (maybe around 12-13), and to be honest was just pretty blown away at all the basic human variety that the forum exposed me to. I mean, I learned what a fetish was here, indirectly met the first gay people I'd ever been exposed to, learned about transexualism, and basically learned that so, so, so many things in life are only "bad" or "wrong" because of subjective viewpoint. The forum basically taught me a new way of looking at life, and how to be openminded and try to see all aspects of a situation even if I may not agree with it. Now, I'm not saying that I might not have developed this without the forum, but I think the forum helped me learn the lesson sooner than alot of the people I knew, and maybe to a degree I might not have otherwise.

For instance, I was raised in a very small rural town, in a pretty traditional family - so you can guess the amount of negative opinion I was fed as a kid concerning alternate forms of sexual expression. But, after having found the forum, whenever I heard a negative comment about "such-and-such weirdo" or "it's better to just stay away from him because he's a... you know" I was able to recognise how distorted and closed-minded those viewpoints were and distance myself from them rather than continuing to internalise those beliefs just because I didn't know any better. So in that way I'd like to think that the fetish and my discovery of it really helped me grow as a person.

I'm definitely interested to see if anyone else has really been touched by the fetish in any other significant way.

[randomguy]

I wouldn't really say that my fetish has significantly changed the course of my life or anything, but I can honestly say that it's taken me places I never would have gone otherwise. Like being able to answer pretty much any question about sneezes... it's really taken me places on Yahoo answers

But most of all, I owe my fetish for leading me to this forum. Thanks to everyone here, I've been able to accept my fetish more. It's also given me a great outlet for writing, because I know that it will always be accepted fairly. This is the most accepting, caring community I've ever come across, and I'm really glad to be a part of it. Thank you, everybody.

[Jessie]

See, I found the forum when I was quite young as well (maybe around 12-13), and to be honest was just pretty blown away at all the basic human variety that the forum exposed me to. I mean, I learned what a fetish was here, indirectly met the first gay people I'd ever been exposed to, learned about transexualism, and basically learned that so, so, so many things in life are only "bad" or "wrong" because of subjective viewpoint. The forum basically taught me a new way of looking at life, and how to be openminded and try to see all aspects of a situation even if I may not agree with it. Now, I'm not saying that I might not have developed this without the forum, but I think the forum helped me learn the lesson sooner than alot of the people I knew, and maybe to a degree I might not have otherwise.

Wow, this is rather beautiful.

More than the fetish itself, this site (and others like it...namely Bondi's page and the TOS back in its glory days) really helped me out when I first started exploring. Reading stories (at that point my dial up internet was too slow/ there were far fewer/ I was to chicken to listen to wavs) helped me figure confusing things out, and lurking around the community helped me feel less alone/like a freak just by knowing that SOMEWHERE there were others like me.

I think the fetish has also made me more selective in my SOs/less interested in casual relationships...which you could see as a good or bad thing. Basically I know that it takes someone "special" to understand me, so it makes finding the right partner that much more important.

[Scarlette]

Well I read things from this forum for a long time before I became a member. But as long as I can remember I have been obsessed with sneezing. The only problem was is that I thought I was alone in the world with well....fetish. That made me rather upset:(. But then I found this forum and I am so happy that I am not alone with this fetish! .

[Prodigy]

I think the fetish has also made me more selective in my SOs/less interested in casual relationships...which you could see as a good or bad thing. Basically I know that it takes someone "special" to understand me, so it makes finding the right partner that much more important.

I wonder if this is a trend? Or perhaps I was just lucky and picked the apple at the top of the tree from the start! I waited until we'd been dating for just over a year to "come out" to him, and more than just making teenage dating even more fun and awkward, it gave us a sense of trust and commitment in our relationship (that I would confess what I stressed to him to be my deepest secret, and that he was entrusted to keeping it).

I was really quite young when I discovered that there was a whole community of folks who were interested in sneezing. I joined up on a forum, waaay back in the day, and I remember learning so much about online dynamics and "Netiquette", if you will, that really shaped who I would become on the Internet and how I would treat others. I learned how to appreciate little things and celebrate small triumphs. And that participation doesn't make you look like a goody-two-shoes; in fact, participation gets you everywhere you want to go in life!