PinballsWizard

yes*

i've been around furry in various stages since the mid 2000s

1. first lurking, discovering what i was looking at
   _{my first introduction to furry art was in high school with doug winger art, so right into the deep end}
2. then posting, but "i'm not a furry"
   _{various forums that no longer exist. there were a lot of them for a while, plenty of them about webcomics some which still run.
   and also like three of them just about macro furry in general}
3. on into roleplaying, but "just a character"
   _{mostly irc, some which do not exist, some which i'm still on! and some muck and mud sprinkled in too}
4. soon enough followed by making a fursona
   _{i am now a furry}

this process took maybe 7-8 years? and at the end of it i had this whole social circle of friends and more which grew and changed over the years as social circles do, and i had a good idea of what stage i was in, who i was, and what i did

but that's as far as my thinking on it ever went. so when i started drawing mid 2018 i never updated my own mental stage, and i've been in stage 4 ever since, and not:

5. being a furry artist

the thought that people saw me as "an artist" came maybe a year or two into it, people who i had met only through my drawing of course wouldn't have any other thought for me, and i picked up on that

but my mental stage was still 4, at least until blfc this year i think. not some big revelation, but that i caught myself thinking of myself as an artist naturally, subconsciously in conversation with a friend today. i think it sunk in after five years while there

i wonder what the next stage will be, i do think i'm probably not it yet, but clearly i've been wrong before |3