snowflake challenge #15

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Challenge 15:

In your own space, create your own challenge.

First of all, I can't believe this is the last challenge! It really flew by. I managed to complete all 15, which feels like succeeding at a personal challenge that I didn't know I had. A quick thank you to all the mods who put in so much hard work in running this! Also to all the people who have commented here at any point- I enjoyed and appreciated seeing all your responses and interacting with you and I hope to come across you sometime in the near future.

This Snowflake Challenge really gave me a chance to interact with those that I normally would not have come across and I appreciate that. Not just that but the interaction in general. So that leads me to two personal challenge, which you are welcome to take on yourselves.

1. This year, step out of your comfort zone.

Interpret that however you would like. I know I am a perfectionist- it is not a brag; it's actually really inconvenient and frustrating because I'm often scared to try new things or get mad when something doesn't come out right the first time. My family has commented on it too.

This year, I want to be less afraid and try new things, in and out of fandom. Take a step I wouldn't have taken. As long as I'm not hurting anyone, I shouldn't be afraid to fail.

2. Participate.

From what I have realized from reading the responses to these challenges, people miss the older fandom days with more interaction and I think this is a 'be the change' situation. Whether that involves commenting, recc'ing, creating and/or all of the above, it can be done! We may not be able to go back to when forums were popular and you couldn't keep up with your LJ flist, but surely there are ways to bring that kind of activity to what we have now. I'm even figuring out Discord!

I was lucky enough to find two co-mods so that I could help run my first AO3 challenge. This year, maybe I will run my own community or lead something else. Someone suggested a more general comment_bingo (I have to find out who did that to credit them too), with permission from the people over at the Steve/Tony one who run a ship specific one, and even though it might be work, it hasn't left my head and I might try that. We'll see.

After all, like I said, it's worth a shot. :D

Comments

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1. I feel you on this one! Failure is just a way of life. Sometimes things don't pan out the way we want them to. I've struggled to be okay with this myself. Just remember to take it one day at a time and remember everything is a learning experience!

It's so easy to type all of this out and a lot harder to do it, but just know you're not alone. But I particularly like "As long as I'm not hurting anyone, I shouldn't be afraid to fail" because you're so right!

2. This is a great one, too, and one that I'm hoping to embody since I know I was one of those people wishing for the same level of activity. Things have changed in the last decade with fandom, but I can only hope that we make the most of knowing that there's a community out there interested in being active. I'm not someone who does rec lists but I've decided that, you know... try it out, see how it goes. There's no harm in trying it out. (You make it look super easy doing recs so I'm like "If svgurl can do it and make it look easy, maybe I can do it, too!")

I believe the comment bingo idea came from muccamukk!

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You're absolutely right. I get down on myself a lot when I fail or worse, even get scared of starting in fear of failure and that is a mindset that I really need to get over.

Just remember to take it one day at a time and remember everything is a learning experience!
Wise words!

I appreciate you saying that. The support is definitely a good motivation for sure, which I'm lucky to have in real life. I get paranoid about stuff, like with baking for example, I'm like "omg what this doesn't taste/look good" and I have realized as long as I set out to do my best, it's okay if it is not perfect. I can always try again. Like you said, learning experience. The consequences are definitely something worth weighing and most of the time, failure is not the end of the world, despite how it may feel.

Yay! It is good that you want to do so as well. It feels like many people want more so that can only lead to good things if everyone takes the next step. The activity may look different but it is still there. And there really isn't any harm! If you don't like it, there isn't any long term commitment involved.

I'm like "If svgurl can do it and make it look easy, maybe I can do it, too!"
*nods* Yes! It is very easy, trust me. I'm a lazy person so if I can do it, anyone can lol And there are places like recthething that make it even easier.

Oh yes, you're right- thank you so much!