Instructions - Add Water - by Trikster, advice for folks newly identifying as therian

I found this essay on an old hard drive, written by a friend of mine back in the day whom I haven't seen in years and years. I've never found it online anywhere else, and it helped me with things when I was getting through the early days. Maybe it'll help someone? I didn't want to see it vanish when my drive failed.

Instructions - Add Water - Trikster, 2001-10-04

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First off... don't kid yourself. It's easy to convince yourself of something that's not true, especially when you're talking about yourself. You probably won't understand this until you're on the other side of whatever it is you need to follow this advice about, but be /brutally/ honest with yourself. It's the only way to be sure of anything.

Second, don't ask for directions to specific places (i.e. how do I get to be a wolf?). A lot of us have no more of a clue to how we got where we are than you do about where you should go from here. If you get advice, take it with a grain of salt no matter /how/ good it seems or /how/ much it makes sense. And be aware that following advice may as easily lead to dead ends as down the road you want to take, and that's not because the advice is bad; it's just because the advice isn't exactly what you need.

Then... Rors actually had it on a pin: "Ask every question. Question every answer." You'll never get /anywhere/ if you sit down and start pretending that you've reached your destination. Change is inevitable; work /with/ it, or at least anticipate it, and you'll be a step ahead of the game. And, like I was analogizing before, this is a /road/. If you don't keep moving you're bound to get stuck somewhere that will be hard to get out of and is likely not worth your time. Mind you, that doesn't mean there aren't a few questions you actually /can/ answer definitively (yes, I am a coyote, and I don't think that will change); just try not to confuse them for each other.

Finally: "Don't take life seriously. You'll never get out of it alive." -Bugs Bunny
"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." -Sigmund Freud
"Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke!" -J. R. "BoB" Dobbs

And don't forget to howl along the way, just because it feels good.

Sounds good, moved to intro forum.

LP,
Dusty