In my early adolescence, I was a very anti-social person. I didn't consider myself a person with many friends, and the few I had seemed to only be in the school setting. Between the 4th and 7th grade, I tended to only make friends for class and usually didn't stay in touch after the school year ended. The few that stayed throughout the years were as reserved as myself and it was rare for us to hang out more than once in a month. My lack of socialization came from two factors- the first being a lack of confidence, the second being a lack of connection. I never seemed to find people who loved the same things I did with the same passion, and when I did, I was always so scared of messing up the friendship by saying or doing the wrong thing that I chose to reserve myself.
When my brother introduced me to the Warriors series by Erin Hunter, I found another way to spend my hours alone. The storyline and world inside the book was thoughtful and complex, and despite it being a juvenile fantasy series about cats, the characters were relatable and multidimensional. It was so thought provoking and intriguing that I struggled to put each book down. I began reading the lengthy series during the 5th grade and when I finished, I waited patiently for the next one to come out. Every few months, I would be on my knees begging my mother to buy the newest one, and every few months we would have the same argument. She would want to wait until it was paperback and, therefore, cheaper. I would insist that I need it immediately and could not wait one more day. It would end with me picking up extra chores to earn it and then spending the whole weekend dissolved in the new story. While I have always liked reading, it was the first time that I didn't want to read- I needed to.
However, Warriors was no Harry Potter, and the release dates weren't heavily advertised for everyone to see. So at the end of the weekend, I would log on to the family computer and go on to the official Warriors website. If the date wasn't there, I would check once a week until it was. Then I would continue to check, just in case it was pushed forward. After returning to the site so often, I found a few games that allowed me to play as the cats and immerse myself into the world. Later on, I found a button in the top corner labeled “forums”. Unaware of what this was, I explored it and found a place with thousands of fans like myself discussing the characters, plotlines, relationships, theories, and upcoming books. Too excited to even ask my parents’ permission, I made an account and jumped into the debates. I checked multiple times every day for the newest responses and topics.
After being on the site for a while, I found a part of the forums that consisted of roleplays. Different users made characters in a unique setting and were able to interact with each other. I joined several that day, making complicated characters to join in on the fun. We created our own plotlines that lasted for months, and I grew to know the people I talked to daily. Eventually I began to consider them my friends.
This had been a major breakthrough because for the first time in a long time, I felt a strong connection to these people and I was not afraid to talk to them. We would type responses for the roleplay. Underneath, we could ask about one another’s day, wonder when one of our friends would be ungrounded, and follow up on another friend’s life struggle. I would log on to a community where people wished me luck on my math final, asked about that one band solo, and sent fun birthday messages when the little cake icon appeared near my name.
While I have since left the website and spent much more time with face to face interaction, I am still connected to some of my old friends through Facebook, snapchat, and texting. These were the people that, for the first time in a long time, made me feel wanted, appreciated, connected, and missed. These were the people that encouraged me to go to one of my first sleepovers, to join a sport, to challenge myself, and become who I am today.
While Warriors may just be a child’s novel, it has influenced my life more than any other story I have read and it has provided myself and thousands of others with a safe, welcoming community.
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