(I was contemplating if I should even post this blog on here. It’s not Amino and there won’t be another BLDA anymore. But this blog describes part of my Amino journey and all the people I met there. So I think it still has a place here. Somehow…)
Today is a bit of a special day for me. Because today marks me being here for 1000 days consecutively. It’s been 1000 days since I stepped officially into this community and somehow this is making me a tiny tad nostalgic really. So I thought why not look back at these 1000 days and remember all these big events, all the people and everything that I have experienced here. Some of you, who have known me for a bit longer, will know everything I am writing here, but maybe, just maybe it might be interesting for some other people.
So, how did this all get started? Well, my journey back to BL began after my gran died really. I was not in the best head space of my life and my body was not in the best shape of its life either. So I started watching C-period drama and I totally loved it. The costumes, the stories. I was in heaven. It didn’t take me long to find Rakuten Viki and one hop, skip and a jump later, I stumbled over Addicted and heaven’s I was addicted again. Because yes, I am a serial BL offender and have been in the fandom for a rather long time. But there were always little breaks and a particularly long one came before I found Addicted.
So here I was. Finding this whole treasure chest of Asian BL. My old obsession with gay storylines on telly totally came back to full force again and before I knew what happened I was researching and obsessing and researching and obsessing even more. And during this research I would always stumble over this tiny Amino community named BLDA. Back then we had around 7k members and it was all rather small. Everyone knew pretty much everyone else.
So I started reading and then I met Ches…
Ches was pretty much my first BLDA love. I found his posts to be so wonderful and his utter obsession with Tul made me love him just so much more. We started talking and before I knew it we shared a chatroom, had viewing parties and picture contests and it was all just so much fun.
It was the first time in almost ten years that I was communicating with other BL fans again and I was literally in heaven. When I met Farhana, Becka, Kilian and Lunar, it felt like things actually fell into place and I found my little family here. The Unicorn Squad was officially born and I was regressing back into a high schooler. Lol. But it was definitely fun for the time it lasted. And funnily enough: Becka and I are still extremely close, talk almost daily and even though she is hardly on BLDA anymore, she is still very present in my life.
I got really active here on BLDA and I posted blog after blog and totally loved it. It had been a while since I was really writing, but once I started it seemed I just couldn’t stop. I even started writing fanfics again, a hobby that survived my ten years online hiatus, but definitely had suffered as well. I was really, really happy. It felt like I found my tribe again and it was like coming home, even though there was a brand new generation of BL fans online now, then from my old hay days.
Of course it didn’t take long for me to get involved with stuff. Together with Farhana I dipped my toe into the BLDA club scene and joined the brand new Ship Club. Together with Luly we completely put everything in this club on its head. I had my first online club meeting with them to make plans for the club and again, it felt so much like what I was used to from before and I loooooooved it so much.
So of course when Farhana applied to be a curator, her little sidekick Dr Watson aka me also had to apply. And surprise, surprise. We both got chosen and accepted the curator position on 3.6.2019. For me who just joined this community to lurk silently on the sidelines this really was a back step. I really just wanted to be a member this time around and just stay away from all the politics and the orga and everything that comes with it. But I loved Gabe already just from reading his blogs and I loved how he took care of the community and I really, really wanted to help him. So here I was.. A new curator. Something I never even wanted.
But it turned out I really, really loved being a curator. I started sorting out the categories, I cleaned up the chatrooms (I once disabled over 200 chatrooms in one day. Man, that was a day…), I disabled and featured blogs and I just really, really enjoyed myself.
As some of you already know, due to my disability I had to give up work a couple of years ago. But my brain is still working fine on most days, so I won’t lie. Life was a bit boring. I was used to such a fast pace and high adrenaline job and suddenly I was sitting at home and doing laundry was sometimes the highlight of my day. So BLDA gave my brain something to do again and I couldn’t believe how much I enjoyed using my brain once more for something interesting. I always had a love for the fandom. Ever since I joined the BL movement. So being able to work together with an amazing team on making this community the best it can be? It’s literally a god sent for me.
While working for Team BLDA and also before that already as well I met some of the most awesome people you can imagine. Kai is definitely one of these people. I met her in a chatroom about What The Duck 2 and we got along so well. Before even the show ended, Kai, Peekaboo Bella, Catherine and myself were as thick as thieves and would hang around literally all the time. That’s when I became Pooh, the Bear and Kai became our Hawaiian princess Lilo. We also had Kanga and Piglet in our crew and that’s how one of my more weird blogs came about: Piglet in BL Wonderland.
During my first summer of being a curator I also met Aqua, my biggest girl crush in world history. We literally spent the whole summer together. Whenever she wasn’t working, we were chatting. She even took me on holiday, by sending me pictures and short videos of her travels. I also met my Asian Chaos Triplets: Shine (my nugget), Star (my cotton candy) and Ming (my silly sausage). I met Siobhan (my SioSio) and Annie (just Annie, no nickname needed). I met pretty much the love of my life in Caratarmy (my Cara, yes. It’s my fault her name got mutilated) and together we started doing live streams which I can’t even begin to explain how much I love doing them. I met Happy (my work wife) and Antonash (my Ash). I met Nott, Mikoto, my Baby Sinclair, my little golden retriever and so many really awesome people, that made me love this community with every passing day even more.
And then a really strange thing happened: I turned leader. On the 15th September 2019 Gabe and Krystal asked me if I would wanna join the leader team and after I collected my jaw from the floor I obviously said yes. And that was the start of me really going crazy. With Gabe and Krystal by my side to always encourage me and hold me back when necessary I really went to town on the organisation of BLDA. We started doing big events like our Pride Fair or Secret Santa. We even started building new teams. I started my beloved Content Team and Gabe started his Theme Team. I am telling you: Gabe and I together could rule the world. If we weren’t too busy watching BL.
So that’s what I have been doing for the last two years, being a leader. Inbetween it even changed so much that I turned agent for this community. So I am officially the big cheese now. Which still feels weird. I just hope I am doing Krystal and her baby proud with what I am doing.
So many things have changed since my humble beginnings in this community. The team completely changed from when I started. I think I am the last one standing from Team Savages. The community has grown like crazy. From 7k to 35k in a bit over two years. And I won’t lie. I am rather proud of this achievement.
In 1000 days I managed to make it all the way to Level 17, opened up another side community where I went all the way to Level 15 already. I have posted 309 blogs on BLDA and I currently have 9581 followers…
It’s crazy when I really think about how much this community has changed my life. These days I honestly see me being here as my full time job. I just don’t get paid with money, but with love and nice comments. This community is my baby and I love it with all my heart. I have been in the BL community for so long and I can honestly say that BL is in my blood. It will never leave me, it’s like a bug with no cure.
And why should I even want a cure? The amount of laughter, joy, excitement and happiness this community has given me is just incredible. I never feel alone, I never feel lonely. I have you all in my pocket, every minute of every day. And that’s a bloody brilliant feeling, let me tell you that.
So I shall continue with my streak and I hope the 2K will be as fun to archive as the first 1K.
First posted on BLDA
Your Heart's Content 