Lets See How Far We've Come

So I see that today is the day of the final episode. I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I fell out of my own frequency of watching the show some time ago. But here we are, 9 years and a whole generation wrapped later, with a new generation soon to come. As I see everyone is talking about their experiences and how they came to discover the Magic of Friendship, I feel like I should share a bit as to how I managed to stumble into the wonderful world of pastel colored horses. It was back during the in-between of Seasons 1 and 2, I was on an RP website known as Whirled. I had never heard of FiM by that point, in fact I still scowled at the Celestia's castle advertisement that ran on TV (before show merchandising had picked up). But then a friend of mine, he starts talking to me about the show. At the time I was rather reluctant to know about it, but I humored him anyway. He was the one to introduce me to a favorite anime of mine, Gurren Lagann. I figured his tastes couldn't have been all bad. I went to Season One and watched through the pilot, keeping an open mind the entire time. I steadily grew more and more interested, and by Episode 7: Dragonshy, I was hooked. Though, at the time, I had to watch the show in secret. I lived with a verbally abusive father with a toxic masculinity, there was no way I could explain why I was watching the show to him. Between that and getting bullied in school, I had turned to cartons and roleplaying as a means of escaping reality. Through the show and the fandom (as well as my step-dad), those helped teach me about a more positive masculinity, and helping me be more confident about my identity as a person. I don't recall at what point I was at in the show but it was sometime before May of 2012 when I created Green Leaf. Though, if I'm continuing to be honest, Leaf is me. Prior to FiM, I was a major Sonic fan, in a sense I still am. There's fanfiction for that origin, but ultimately, Leaf is the same character as an alternate version of myself, written into a story about being a scientist who studies alternate universes (and if you're guessing it, yes I used to watch the TV show Sliders. Looking back, it's probably where I got some concepts) got stuck on Mobius and that's where his story was going to stay. But FiM came about, and I wanted to continue using a character that was already familiar with traveling the multiverse. While I never got to writing the final bit of his life on Mobius, as the story was and still is mental bullet points (and most likely written down on some cloud archived sticky note), I did manage to get out the beginning chapter of living in Equestria. There's still plenty of ideas that rattle in my head about adventures Leaf could take, and hopefully I get them out soon. But, for those who wonder, Leaf is far older than he looks. He lives till he's about 45 on Mobius, before he is killed by a long time foe. He's sent back to Earth, where he's back to being 17 (as I had based the ages around what age I was at the time), researches more, then gets trapped in Equestria. He's been there for 6 years, between zany adventures and multiversal hijinks. Overall, he's been alive for 51 years, yet biologically he's 23. His story does continue beyond that, for at least 20 more years, potentially more as I create more ideas. I do extend my deepest of thanks to those who I've talked with that have seen Leaf (and myself) become the unique character he is. I know it may seem like I'm not on Canterlot Avenue too frequently, but I do try to check in and smile on all the creative people I see. As I do my best to catch back up with a show I came to adore and one that helped me through 2 difficult years of my life, I do wonder where the fandom will sail to. What does Generation 5 hold for us? What will be different? And how will I factor Leaf into all this? After all, there's a whole wide multiverse to explore.