Has Buffy changed your life...

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First of all, the show came into my life at a very tumultuous time. Was binge watching with my husband and twenty something son and his wife. Because of that Buffy always reminds me of that time in my life.

It was a time of both tremendous joy and pain.

Themes and storylines in the show triggered some events and discussions that were involved in our divorce after twenty-five years of marriage. Buffy didn't cause the divorce, but probably hastened it.

I had also experienced a near death experience after the birth of our second son. "Coming back" from that was complicated and I went through some of what Buffy experienced. So all those feelings and issues reemerged. I had never spoken about them with my family.

Like Buffy the idea was that I should be so happy just to be alive. But it was way more complicated than that.

There was so much to be happy for, but the sense of loss was real. Then came the guilt for not being totally happy and grateful.

Buffy helped me process that.

Also it was nice to have the distraction of having a crush on Spike when so much ugly was going on in my life.
 
bespangeled
bespangeled
((hug))
Life changing, no. That would have to apply to Davy Crockett, Roy Rogers, "Star Trek," and the literary John Carter. But Buffy's and her friends have brought heck of a lot of fun since I first became a fan, not the least of which is associating with the bunch of young whipper snappers that hang around this website. As long as I can visit here, I'll never suffer from low blood pressure.
 
Well, yes. It helped me through a lot of stressful times. On top of that, it introduced me to a lot of great actors and filmmakers that I might never have discovered otherwise.
 
Yes, I've met a lot of friends through Buffy, both through this board and through conventions. It's made me a lot poorer too thanks to introducing me to conventions!
 
Buffy was the first show that exposed me to fandom. I started going to conventions then working them which meant meeting some of my best friends. I know people that met through Buffy sites that got married and now have families. So to be Buffy is community and next year I look forward to finally meeting my daughter @Lyri
 
Ethan Reigns
Ethan Reigns
Are you saying Lyri is your daughter?
Absolutely !
*It ruined a lot other TV shows for me, I've become more picky about what I watch.
*It changed the way I view social media (mostly because of BB).
*It made me aware that not all vampire stuff are crappy like Twilight.
*It made me realize that you can still be a fan of a TV show, even if you have a lot of negative opinions about it (I love the Buffyverse, but it has many things in it that I hate...).
 
I kinda related to this show's Willow S4 storyline along with Once & Again's Jessie S3 storyline. Definitely helped during that time of my life. Thank you Whedon, Herskovits & Zwick.
 
Yes. I would never have found BB, and never have met some of the people that I have met and would not have done things due to meeting them!! For example; Insurgence con 😀
So physically my life changed. It also bought me closer to some people I already knew but didn't realise they were fans too. Made me think more about life and made me fall in love with certain characters. My playing around in photoshop would also have never occurred as I wouldn't have found people to teach me and inspire me.
 
Changed it? Maybe not, but my life is better because of Buffy.

When I sit down and watch some Buffy, I feel like I'm visiting with an old friend.

I'm not as engaged in the fandom as I once was - I don't update my blog anymore, and I no longer read fanfiction - but I still collect memorbilia and go to Buffy trivia nights.

Buffy is and will always be my favorite show.
 
brinkster130
brinkster130
Buffy trivia nights sound fun! Do you set them up or go out to a place that hosts them?
I would say it changed my life in the way that I too was introduced to fandom via Buffy, but also that when I first watched Buffy - as wee little girl 😉 - it gave me a role model to look up to. I really, really loved Buffy (the character) and I do feel that in some ways she helped me through a lot of stuff when I was a teen.
 
It definitely made me and my sister closer. One (keyword) thing we can agree on is our enjoyment of BtVS and Angel. We can just about tolerate each other when it comes to watching or talking about the Buffyverse.
 
Made me want to be a writer and taught me quite a bit about dialogue, plot, and character development.
Made me wake up and smell the roses: life can suck pretty hard sometimes, but there will be a light at the end of the tunnel if you always do the right thing and stay optimistic against even the most overwhelming odds.
 
When I became disabled I lost so much - my entire life really. I went from being active and full of purpose to having surgeries (4 last year) and going through recovery. I went to a very dark place, and my younger daughter knows me well enough to know I need an obsession. (You should have seen me back in the ST-TOS days!) So, since I made her watch TOS as a child (which she loved) she made me wtch Buffy. When I was teaching a few years before (Montessori) a lot of my kids were fans, and I saw lots of jagged parts and heard several renditions of "Out for a walk...bitch". But it was named Buffy, and I hated that vampires looked weird, and I liked vampires so I didn't want them killed, and I really did not want to watch it.

I loved it - it had so much reality - it was unpredictable, and it went beyond other shows. Angelus killing a main character upped the ante. I have loved other shows but they are always missing something. I watch, usually with one of the kids or grandkids, but there is no show that gives me the complete experience. The risks are real, and the characters are real, and it isn't a predictable genre with characters that look like Hollywood clones.

So I watched, and eventually found fanfic and I read (used to read and write TOS fanfic) and I got an LJ, and I loved talking to people who had written stories I love. But a few things happened, and a Buffy friend died, and the lack of reaction kind started to make me aware of all sorts of history and politics. I started writing - first time in years. That really helped me - made me realize there was one thing I hadn't really lost. And I found this place, and it is home.

So yeah, in some way Buffy saved my life.
 
I discovered Buffy at the end of middle school, after it had been off the air for several years. It definitely changed my life, in the same way that reading Harry Potter or listening to my favorite band changed my life... Something just clicked and I felt less alone in the world.

BtVS was everything I could ask for in a TV show -- funny, smart, dark, deep, shallow, relateable, ongoing -- and it really filled a gap for me. I love pop culture as much as I love drama and action and magic... This was everything. I realized that there were people out there like me, who created and appreciated the same kind of art that I did, who viewed the world in the same way I did... The show wasn't pretentious, but it wasn't cliche either. It felt so real. And this show lasted for seven seasons, plus a five season spin-off, so many hours of stories that I could enjoy and continue to engage with for so many years of my life. I truly feel that this show is something very special, as there has not been anything like it, before or since it aired.

In a more personal way, season 6 resonates with me so completely as such an honest portrayal of depression, both through Buffy and Willow. I could relate so thoroughly to the characters throughout the whole show but this was the first time I really saw a TV show take it there, go that dark and that deep into pain and heartbreak and loneliness and everything that I felt as a teenager as well. At times I felt no one around me understood me, but the characters somehow did.

I don't know if that sounds super dramatic or what, but yes, it definitely changed my life!
 
Very different, but also kind of related storys, in a transcendency way.

As interesting as thrilling. 🙂
 
Well, it introduced me to this board so yeah, I guess it has impacted my life. I've spent a good bit of time here the last few years and have interacted with some pretty interesting people.
 
bespangeled said:
So yeah, in some way Buffy saved my life.
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Yeah, I can relate to that – something similar (but not even so serious) happened to me, not with the Buffyverse, but with another show. I don't understand people who say “I read this book and it changed my life!”, I believe in changing by going through life experiences, bad and good, but not by reading a book or watching a movie.

But fiction can really save lives – or make it more bearable sometimes. In my case was watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that got me through a really dark period of my life; all that kept me going was waiting for the 4:30 am rerun of the show, and after 30 minutes I was able to sleep and, let's say, “recharge” to live another day (I had my VHS tapes and DVDs, and books, but I didn't even have the will or interest to pick them up from the shelf). I didn't become a fan of the show – as I'm of the Buffyverse and Highlander, for instance – but till today I thank Will Smith when I see him on TV (and he is such a nice guy) for the time he and his show helped me.

bespangeled said:
So, since I made her watch TOS
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TOS???
 
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