for the most sensitive among us the noise can be too much.

Queer as Folk Convention 2013.

It's been 13 years since Queer as Folk debuted on Showtime. I didn't watch it when the show started. I was 15 years old and too involved (or obsessed) with music at the time to turn my attention to television. I swear, I watched every single show I liked on VHS when I recorded an episode because I didn't have the time to watch it on weeknights. Too much homework. And Queer as Folk just wasn't on my radar.

It wasn't until the summer of 2003 when I graduated from high school and could do nothing for the summer that I discovered the show. I rented every DVD at Blockbuster because I remember those QaF DVD seasons were around $120 retail price when they first came out. I bought mine on eBay for $55 each -- seasons one and two. Some generous soul sent me season three which just ended by the time I decided to start watching.

I got hooked on it and ten years later, I'm still here. I'm still in fandom (currently inactive because someone waves something shiny in front of me and I look somewhere else) and I always have plans to revive something and be a little more active. I want to refresh the qafrecs community since I have it. I'm sure a lot of those links are dead or aren't linked to the correct and current active link. I want to go through those and write some kind of definitive list. I want to go back and read tons and tons of fanfic and not just my old favorites. There's still plenty I'd like to do. So I don't see this train stopping anytime soon.

More than that, I'm grateful for all the friends the show brought me. Even though I may not have known them in the height of fandom, I'm really happy to have friends who can remember the good old days and reminisce about all the fun. I really can't believe all the things I've encountered and all the things I've been fortunate enough to do these past ten years. I've visited my QaF/Lure friends (and yearly vacations have been awesome), I've seen Randy in the Berkshires, I've seen various play performances by Gale, Scott, and Peter, and I went to the most recent Queer as Folk convention. Not only was I an attendee as a fan, but I got the opportunity to photograph every moment, spend some quality time with cast members, and make new friends.

It's been an amazing ten years all thanks to this one show. Thank you for existing, Queer as Folk. Don't know what I would've done without you.

I was trying to think of something to post that really explained all my feelings for the show in a succinct and yet uplifting way and this video was it.