When I joined the fandom three years ago, I had completely no idea, nor intention, of it turning into a thing that's so important in my life as of right now. I have so many awesome and really close friends here, friends that I would've never met offline without the help of this fandom. So much responsibility in the form of helping the community in a moderation role or even just talking and listening to someone if they feel down. I have had (and still have <3) romantic encounters that originally spring from the fandom which is something I could only dream of having in my day to day non-furry life due to my tendency to come across as a bit of a bumbling idiot in one on one conversation. XD Luckily that has gotten better in recent times.

However, I can tell none of this to pretty much anyone irl. I have ranted before about how my parents have an air of disapproval about the community. I have also ranted about my father's bigotry regarding my brother's sexuality and his overreaction towards long distance online relationships (mostly because of a few notable criminal cases regarding online "relationships" here in the UK). So much so that even when I was in a heterosexual relationship long distance with someone in this community, I still did not dare to tell.

All of this results in me lying.... a lot about this to my family. When I'm browsing the FA forums on my phone or something and they ask what I'm doing then I just say "browsing a gaming forum". When I'm playing a game with some fellow fur friends and we're talking over skype, my dad asks who I'm talking to then goes on to specify "from where?" and I just have to say school because that's the easiest option... Even when I'm talking to my SO, I still have to say "I'm talking to a friend". My mother keeps bugging me as to whether I have a girlfriend or not yet... Oh if only they knew...

I completely sign out of skype and any furry site when I leave my computer out of.... actually quite justified paranoia because they HAVE checked my phone (at least) and looked through my browsing history without my knowledge before. I know for a fact they have searched for my previous online pseudonym on the forums due to me checking the history right after they had to "talk" to me about something (hint hint, furry stuff). This was all confirmed by my mother. Luckily there was nothing incredibly incriminating on the first page of results if you search for my name on the forum so I sorta dodged a bullet.

I am reminded of the double life every time I switch between my twitter accounts for real life stuff and furry stuff. One where people expect and know me to behave one way and one where they know me to behave a different way. I do behave differently. In the fandom I'm more relaxed and can be just... silly and fun. I would weird out a lot of people on my irl twitter if I accidentally posted a furry tweet say, with a bit of fun RP action thingy in it. I would also have a lot of explaining to do to my dad since he follows my irl twitter...

I don't want to have to lie, though. I don't think anyone does. I want to be open and honest with people about how big a part of my life this community is. Not in the obnoxious "accept me 4 bein a furry plz you fur hater! :V" sort of way. Just be able to make a passing mention of it and if they're interested, be able to talk about it. Also not have to cover my tracks through fear of disapproval.

That's about it...

TL;DR. I lead a double life. One irl, one furry. Causes me to lie. Don't want to have to lie.