#1 Fan

“Did you see last night’s performance? Wasn’t it awesome?”, “Yeah I liked how they performed even though the singer had a broken leg.”, “Woah, he broke his leg? When did that happen?”, “Oh my Glob! Don’t tell me you didn’t know, what kind of a fan are you? You should know these kind of things, I mean seriously…”

You’re just listening to your favorite band, not having a single care in the world, and then something similar happens. It makes you feel bad about yourself, makes you doubt your very existence and purpose in life. Alright, maybe not your purpose, but you get the idea. To be a true and loyal fan doesn’t mean to know each and every little detail about your stalked prey, I mean favorite celebrity. I might just like the actor, even though I have no idea that he comes from a rich line of famous actors that could be dated back to the Dinosaur Theatre, back in 625.000.000.000 BC.

With the same logic applied, I could say you are not a real believer because you don’t pray ten times a day or you aren’t a true gamer because you don’t play all the games, and the similar lot. There isn’t a ‘manual’ to describe what a fan is, except the one that describes that a fan is actually a stationary propeller that cools you, BUT, to be a fan means to basically follow the thing you like. Whether you will learn the whole background history of whatever you are a fan of is completely up to you. For example, if you are a fan of a particular beer, it does not care if you know how it is made, it does not care if you know how you will drink it, it is just a beverage that you like. Regardless of anything, or anyone.

There is always someone who takes things too far, someone who knows every possible detail of whatever they like oh so much. That my friends is not a true fan, that right there is a true stalker, I bet if they could, they would, sniff even the trash of a famous person. Seriously though, there is a thin line between fandom and fanaticism. That’s how religious wars start and that’s how unnecessary and unrelated conflicts start. I mean, is it really worth to fight with your friend because he/she obviously doesn’t appreciate you digging up information on the Internet, because you obviously need to know the shoe size of that famous indigenous pop-star singer with an Irish accent, am I right?

As usual people take things too far, far too often. If you consider yourself to be a fan, good for you. Don’t point out the fact that you probably spend too much time on the Internet trying to figure out how to obtain used tissues for a DNA sample. Just politely say “Yes, I like that band/book/series/whatever too.” Not so hard, is it? If you have time to look up useless information, try to be a dear and look up some common sense as well.

Be a cool fan.

By Dejan Vicai