A College Brony

[Erlenmeyer]

So schools coming around the corner and I'm about to start my first year of college! I'm going to move in tomorrow and I'll start classes on Monday

So I'm wondering how was your experience in college as a brony? Any tips about roommates, classes, etc. that you can lend me? Any stories related to your or another's bronyness? And if your like me (just starting college as well), what are your concerns if any?

I MUST HAVE ALL THE INFO

[Rosewind]

I dunno what to tell you, as every school is different. My experience (at least with the people I've met at school that like pony) is they tend to hang out in their own little groups, and may know each other from a previous school -- usually high school. If you want to attract attention for potential pony friends, wear pony stuff and represent!

[Talex]

Rosewind's got a point there. Everybody will form their own little circles and friendships. The trick is for you to join the right ones. It's not that big of a deal for me since my school is so small and I'm fairly popular, so I can just roam from group to group and everybody will be like "sup Talex!" So I don't have much advice on how to help. I know that wearing pony stuff on the first day might intimidate people, so instead, perhaps just make a few references that only bronys would get and see if anyone picks up on it. And the number one rule I have to offer you....

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS PONY DO NOT PROCRASTINATE ON ANYTHING!!!!!

Procrastinate later..... (that makes sense if you think about it.)

Oh, and that first picture is the story of my life.

[starswirlthebearded]

There are a few things I can suggest.

1) Be weary of your roommate. If he is open-minded you don't need to hide anything, but if he isn't, I'd recommend keeping your conflicting interests to a bear minimum. You'll be spending a decent amount of time together. You don't want things to be awkward.*

2) What Rosie said is an excellent way to meet bronies. Wearing brony swag will get you noticed by bronies. However it will also get you noticed by haters or nonbronies. Luckily enough, most of said haters and nonbronies will not care enough to give you any problems.

3) Meet-up groups.... Look on the meet-up site for brony groups on your campus or in the surrounding area. You'd be surprised how many meet-up groups there are.

4) Intranet networks. Some colleges have an intranet network for file sharing and chatting. Ask around to see if there is one on the campus. If there is it would be easy to find those who have pony stuff shared and even easier to make a connection if you contact them. That is how I found all the sci-fi nerds on my previous campus, and how I made some of my best friends in college, whom I still meet with today.

*I don't like the idea of hiding yourself, but I've had bad experiences with roommates, so its best to play it safe and learn a bit before you settle in with him. He can either be your best friend or your worst enemy (The latter happened to me once, and to my dismay when I left, in part because of him (long story) he received MULTIPLE death threats. I had to make it clear that I didn't want anything done Actually I had 3 roommates, only one of which I was cool with. But the first one it was more like a non-complacent agreement to avoid each other, the second was probably the best (I had no issues with him and he was a pretty decent guy), but I wished to move into the building where all of my friends were, which lead to the third, which was the worst of them all )

That is my advice for you. And try not to procrastinate. Good things never come of it.

[Erlenmeyer]

1) Be weary of your roommate. If he is open-minded you don't need to hide anything, but if he isn't, I'd recommend keeping your conflicting interests to a bear minimum. You'll be spending a decent amount of time together. You don't want things to be awkward.*

I pretty much agree with you on that. I didn't mention my little obsession with my roommate when I was contacting him on facebook, as I didn't think it was particularly important at the time. Then again, I have pony stuff on my page. He hasn't brought it up, though. So either he doesn't know or he doesn't care. Both of which I'm fine with.

[elsporko]

Most people in college don't really care what you like as long as you aren't weird and obbsessive about it. Its not like high school where there may be worry about popularity. College has too many people for those sort of squabbles and anything like that will be kept within a smaller social group. If you act like something isn't shameful then others won't percieve it that way.

[Thoth]

As I've come to learn when in this fandom, you need to learn a balance of how big and "out-in-the-open" you are about the show and the fandom.

People will come to accept it if you are controlled about your interest, as it's simply YOUR interest, and no one should care enough to insult it. High school is far different from College, because in college people are focusing on the truly essential things in THEIR lives. They have enough maturity to not go trolling you about it, because they know they have different interests too. High School is simply a worse time to show off your Brony nature because EVERYTHING surrounds the stupid idea of popularity, and it's simply material in fashion and stupid in nature. As soon as you get out of high school, the popularity race is immediately viewed as childish, which it truly is.

Generally, be fanatical about being a Brony and loving the show in the appropriate times. If you're around someone or even roommates with someone who has no idea what is, then act like it's something not needed to be explained in huge detail. If they ask, calmly explain and recommend it. You have to respect the opinions and interests of other people in your life, no matter how bias or strange they may be.

If you happen upon any other Bronies, then excellent! Moderation could apply, but it's the perfect outlet for your love of the show.

[Erlenmeyer]

My roommate just asked about bronies, saying he saw some posts I made on facebook. So I just explained it to him and he says he's cool with it. He's a pretty nice guy to begin with so I didn't think I'd have problems with him.

[starswirlthebearded]

My roommate just asked about bronies, saying he saw some posts I made on facebook. So I just explained it to him and he says he's cool with it. He's a pretty nice guy to begin with so I didn't think I'd have problems with him.

Amazing! Perhaps he'll get curious, and when you meet again he too shall be a brony and you can be friends from the start because of ponies!

[ZeroHero]

While I'm not a college brony, I do have roommates, so I'm going to throw my two cents in. Adding on to what Elsporko and Thoth have said, once you graduate high school, the world becomes much bigger and one of the greatest perks of that is that you are more free to express yourself without fear of whiplash. I have two roommates who are both non-bronies and I was open about it from the start. While they're cool with it, they do like to poke fun at it. I simply roll with it and laugh with them - sometimes just adding onto their joke. One of the coolest things about this fandom is the variety of fan-made material. I have over an hour of fan-made pony music on my ipod that I like to play in my car, whether I'm alone or not. I've found that my roommates (and other passengers), despite not being bronies, enjoy most of the music. So basically the point I'm trying to get across is be as open about it as you feel comfortable with, test the waters a bit and see how those around you react, and find ways to enjoy ponies around them that doesn't bother them (if you've already found that they're cool with it). Don't blindly dive in head first.