Hey everybody,
I wanted to dedicate a few words to the fact that for a long time, we've all been really unfair to younger therians.
We've all been talking about, how this and that isn't really therianthropy, and how some things aren't real and so forth. The truth is, when I was your age, I was proud to be a wolf, and I've done all those things that I've criticised since.
I had my pack, my friends whom I cared about dearly. And while the years since have taught me that not everything in that pack was as I imagined it to be, at the time I was the Alpha, I was pissing off the elder therians and I didn't care because to me, loyalty to one's pack is important.
It seems silly now, but I'm a wolf and I was a teen and these things came naturally to me. I'm older now, and I'm that elder therian I was pissing off in my youth, and I guess for a time, I didn't see things as they used to be. If you're a teen now and you're a wolf, you have every right to feel as I did at the time and it's okay to piss us elder therians off.
I remember I fantasied about being able to p-shift. You know, it's impossible, but hope dies last? If I had a chance to sleep out on a full moon Friday or drink water out of a pawprint, I would have tried it anyway. For the werewolf pride if nothing else. Now as a community leader, thinking about all the harm it's caused, it's different. But yeah, I know how you feel.
And I also used to tell people I could smell better and see in the dark better because I'm a wolf. I have to acknowledge that I don't actually see, hear or smell any better than anyone else, but at the same time, spending time in a forest, with all the hunting bells and whistles of my mind switched on, I certainly felt more in touch with my environment, than the joggers who were just there for the fresh air.
The truth is, when you first get in touch with your animal aspect as a pup, it's a magical time. And I shouldn't be here to ruin the moment for you with my "experience". I was as proud as you are right now, to be your theriotype. Being young is a part of our lives too, you have every right to be yourself. I apologise to you if I made it sound like what you feel isn't right.
LP,
Dusty