Reflecting on “The Cate Morland Chronicles”, i.e. My Life
2016 has been a tough one, but I’m not ready to completely call it a bust. It has thrown a lot of crap and heartache at us, yes, but that doesn’t mean I would give up all of the experiences I had along the way. And yes, that includes the sucky ones. I have shared a lot of those experiences with you all this year with my vlog experiment, The Cate Morland Chronicles. You all saw me ecstatic, heartbroken, angry, afraid, embarrassed, fangirling, humiliated, and over the moon, blissfully happy. I made some great decisions and some really, really stupid ones. My grandma always said “You can’t have the rainbows without the rain.” It’s an old saying, I know, but now as I head into my adult life, that means more to me than ever. Life comes with its fair amount of suckage, but that’s what makes you even more grateful for its abundance of greatness.
By now, I think you all know that it turned out alright for me (okay, a little more than alright), but that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to forget all those life lessons I picked up along the way. I’ve learned that as much as I may want to think the best of everyone, I’m sometimes going to be disappointed. At the end of the day, we are all just human. We are capable of hurting each other, either with full intent to do so or completely by accident. But I maintain my intent to give people the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think I have it within me to become a full-blown cynic.
An instance where I didn’t give someone the benefit of the doubt was with The General and look how that turned out. Even though he and I suffered from a bit of a misunderstanding, I’m still aware that I shouldn’t have presumed the worst. Especially since I was presuming the worst just because it was the most dramatic and scintillating. I love my fandoms and I will always love The Mysteries of Udolpho, but it has as much bearing on my real life as The Cat in the Hat. (No matter how cool I think it would be to have a machine that cleans my house before Mom gets home.)
With those life lessons comes the decision to maintain the end of my vlog. I have loved sharing my life with you all, but frankly, I’m just too busy to continue. Duke is giving me more work to do to make up for the fact that I no longer get to write the Henry cover story for obvious ethical reasons. Also, Henry and I agreed that we want to keep to ourselves. (But maybe you’ll see him pop up in the pages of Persona now and again.) I can’t tell you what it has meant to me to have all of you lovely, fandamonious, outspoken viewers along for this ride that has been my post-graduate experience. You all cheered me along and gave it to me straight, which I definitely needed some of this year.
Just remember to love what you love and geek out over your fandoms, no matter what they may be. It’s especially during the tough times that we need their engaging stories and communities.
So let us not say good-bye, but instead - “Live long and prosper.”
Forever and always your fangirl friend,
2087
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