#pocket pals
Today is my 30th birthday. I’m in lockdown in a global pandemic.
Today I sat on my living room floor and read messages and opened gifts from 14 people I wouldn’t have met without the X Files or this website. I videocalled with eight women who I wouldn’t know without this fandom, who I rely on though we barely discuss fandom any more.
Never let anybody make you feel that the spaces and people that you find online are less than those from elsewhere.
If 2020 has given me one gift it is the reminder that these relationships are the most precious, realest things I have been blessed with. Our jobs, schools, doctors appointments are legitimate when run online, so its time to banish the stigma attached to online love, platonic or otherwise.
These spaces, where we share our nerdiest, nichest interests, develop them and find like minds are the places that will get us through shit like this year. Physical distance, language barriers, different ideas are not insurmountable here. We already have the courage to stand apart from the norm, to be passionate without shame, we are curious, cautious, resistant to the minimisation of what we know to be of value. A pandemic is no match for these people.
The world may fall apart.
I may fall apart.
They will still be there.
To all of my pocket pals. Thank you for being there, even when I have nothing left to give. Thank you for accepting what I bring when I can. I love you.
To anyone still looking for their people. Don’t give up. Dont change. I love you.
