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Description
Acceptance can make a huge difference in people's lives even in small places and in small ways.

This is my entry for the *PotterShare contest asking how PotterShare affected your life. I wanted to explain how the simple acceptance changed my life.

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To describe (in way too many words):

The influence PotterShare has had on my life can be summerized by the word acceptance. I did not fit in; I do not fit in; I don't think people realize how much I don't fit in. I had trouble being accepted as I was, and PotterShare accepted me as a member, as a part of the community, and made me grow socially because I had somewhere to grow. Even still as I come into the chat I am unsure how to interact, but I have made huge progress since I joined. The internet was a big part of this growth. PotterShare was a big part of this growth.

I have Aspergers Syndrome which influences my life in both positive and negetive ways. In general this has made me such that I have difficulty dealing with people which are not small groups of extremely close friends. As this chat and club do not fall within this catagory my interactions were defined in ways by my being an aspie. However, I was able to learn in some ways how to better interact with people from those here.

My growth, my changes, the influences on my life, are summerized by my interactions with DA and PotterShare specifically.

When I first joined DA I was not at all an artistic person, I joined because a few of my online friends were members and I wanted to comment on their art. I eventually started messing around and putting things up myself. This has gone through phases as compared to most people here I am not interested in art - I am much more someone who likes the math/science/engineering than the art side.

However, even with this #PotterShare has made a large impact on my life. When I first joined #PotterShare I was wary about being in chatrooms because I was unsure about talking to people in such a fast format. I had gotten comfortable with forums, but the more direct interactions scared me. It was too easy for people to misunderstand what was said because there was less time you were able to think. You couldn't pre-plan what you're saying in a chatroom like you could on a forum. But I joined anyways, and started coming, and got involved with ads and collaberations and talking to people. I got more comfortable talking to people because of #PotterShare. When I became a prefect back on my old account I was forced to be more open about myself, which was an extremely good thing for me - because it something I needed to learn eventually to deal with people. I became more comfortable with people, and as my schooling got to be a bigger part of my life I moved on. I stopped having time for #PotterShare and stopped coming very often. I had awkardness with parents and DA and with the lack of time I'd not been coming to DA much at all, so I killed my account.

However what it had done before that point was huge as I was able to communicate. I needed to learn how to communicate online because of the comfort it gave me, and the more private chatroom that #PotterShare was gave me the needed location. My Aspergers now doesn't make nearly the difference it used to because of the growth that PotterShare caused.

I really noticed how much #PotterShare made a difference when I really missed it. I came back on a new account because of missing PotterShare so much and started posting art again. I now yet again have art to calm me down if I am in such a mood that it would because of this return.

In terms of art, PotterShare was the biggest influence I had. I was able to start learning how to draw people because of the collabs I did, and got more comfortable with the idea of drawing. I was comfortable randomly sketching to calm myself down, when I hadn't been before. I was comfortable opening up a program and messing with the pixels on my computer screen to start working on an emote. This made a big difference on its own as I cannot express my emotions at all, but getting them out through art can make up for some of that.

So in the end thank you Juli for creating somewhere the members can grow; thank you all of the staff for helping with the process; and thank you to all my peers in #PotterShare for being accepting in a way that I personally needed. You have all changed my life for the better.

Description
Acceptance can make a huge difference in people's lives even in small places and in small ways.

This is my entry for the *PotterShare contest asking how PotterShare affected your life. I wanted to explain how the simple acceptance changed my life.

--

To describe (in way too many words):

The influence PotterShare has had on my life can be summerized by the word acceptance. I did not fit in; I do not fit in; I don't think people realize how much I don't fit in. I had trouble being accepted as I was, and PotterShare accepted me as a member, as a part of the community, and made me grow socially because I had somewhere to grow. Even still as I come into the chat I am unsure how to interact, but I have made huge progress since I joined. The internet was a big part of this growth. PotterShare was a big part of this growth.

I have Aspergers Syndrome which influences my life in both positive and negetive ways. In general this has made me such that I have difficulty dealing with people which are not small groups of extremely close friends. As this chat and club do not fall within this catagory my interactions were defined in ways by my being an aspie. However, I was able to learn in some ways how to better interact with people from those here.

My growth, my changes, the influences on my life, are summerized by my interactions with DA and PotterShare specifically.

When I first joined DA I was not at all an artistic person, I joined because a few of my online friends were members and I wanted to comment on their art. I eventually started messing around and putting things up myself. This has gone through phases as compared to most people here I am not interested in art - I am much more someone who likes the math/science/engineering than the art side.

However, even with this #PotterShare has made a large impact on my life. When I first joined #PotterShare I was wary about being in chatrooms because I was unsure about talking to people in such a fast format. I had gotten comfortable with forums, but the more direct interactions scared me. It was too easy for people to misunderstand what was said because there was less time you were able to think. You couldn't pre-plan what you're saying in a chatroom like you could on a forum. But I joined anyways, and started coming, and got involved with ads and collaberations and talking to people. I got more comfortable talking to people because of #PotterShare. When I became a prefect back on my old account I was forced to be more open about myself, which was an extremely good thing for me - because it something I needed to learn eventually to deal with people. I became more comfortable with people, and as my schooling got to be a bigger part of my life I moved on. I stopped having time for #PotterShare and stopped coming very often. I had awkardness with parents and DA and with the lack of time I'd not been coming to DA much at all, so I killed my account.

However what it had done before that point was huge as I was able to communicate. I needed to learn how to communicate online because of the comfort it gave me, and the more private chatroom that #PotterShare was gave me the needed location. My Aspergers now doesn't make nearly the difference it used to because of the growth that PotterShare caused.

I really noticed how much #PotterShare made a difference when I really missed it. I came back on a new account because of missing PotterShare so much and started posting art again. I now yet again have art to calm me down if I am in such a mood that it would because of this return.

In terms of art, PotterShare was the biggest influence I had. I was able to start learning how to draw people because of the collabs I did, and got more comfortable with the idea of drawing. I was comfortable randomly sketching to calm myself down, when I hadn't been before. I was comfortable opening up a program and messing with the pixels on my computer screen to start working on an emote. This made a big difference on its own as I cannot express my emotions at all, but getting them out through art can make up for some of that.

So in the end thank you Juli for creating somewhere the members can grow; thank you all of the staff for helping with the process; and thank you to all my peers in #PotterShare for being accepting in a way that I personally needed. You have all changed my life for the better.