It is shocking how blind I was until recently.
I vividly remember wanting to be a lot of different animals when I was young (as soon as when I was 7). I had an animal encyclopedia I would often look through. I had a bit of a special interest for wolves at that time because Twilight Princess had just gotten announced and it was my first real exposure to tf.
Fast forward a few years to when I get a less restricted access to the internet. I did all the stupid stuff you'd expect from a kid on the internet: try to find ways to transform: "magic", hypno, etc. Get discouraged because of course none of that works. Turn to lucid dreaming instead. Fail at that too (I was spending way too much time in bed from how obsessed I was with this idea).
Over time, I got a lot more open to what species I'd want to be around that time. Dragons, foxes, insects, fishes. You name it, I probably wished to be one at some point.
A bit later, I was joining more furry groups and really struggling to find a species that fits right. So many of them had elements I likes and elements I disliked. But I kept searching for a species that fits me right. Along that search I went from Fennec to Sable to Owl to Vulpix to Reindeer to Amphimorpho, the last of which is a species with shapeshifting abilities. They all lasted over a year with the exception of Fennec, which just did not stick and Amphimorpho, which is my current species as of recently. I will likely post art of all of them on here some day :3
I still really love both the Reindeer and the Owl from my past sonas and do expect to shift into them semi-regularly on top of all the other critters I've been enjoying.
I do also still love the Vulpix but don't like the idea of being linked to a giant anti-consumer multimillion corporation so I don't really expect to ever use it again.
It's only last month that I even considered being a shapeshifter and I honestly wonder how it took me this long to sort out this mess of feelings inside of me.
For now, I am glad to have a better grasp on who/what I am :)