How I got into the World of Anime
Tags: Life Stories, Childhood, Travel, Middle School, Anime

A story about the events of life leading to something beautiful

Photo: Funimation

Hey all ! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I woke up at 5am this morning thinking about what to share with you today. Then at 5:30 am, all of a sudden, “Bazinga!!” it struck me.

“Why don’t I talk about my life and how I got into one of my favorite past-times“

So here goes!

I started watching Anime when I was in 7th grade. This was a very turbulent time in my life. My family and I had just moved to America from India. It was a completely new atmosphere and culture for me.

I was quite outgoing and friendly when I was in India. Had many friends, we used to play outside, go out for movies, birthday parties etc. One day my parents sat me and my brother down and told us. “Kids, we are moving to America!” I was extremely excited. Back then(why does this make me sound like an old timer ? This was in 2008 haha), one would only dream about coming here. I told all my friends, family, teachers, strangers, anyone and everyone that I was moving to America.

Then, the big move happened. We went to the public middle school for my admission. Everyone was really nice and welcoming there. I was excited to start school.

Fast-forward to the first day of school, “OH GOLLY”. I still remember like it was yesterday. I was the new kid in the block about a quarter in the first-marking period. Meaning I was late into the school year by a couple months. People had already made their friends “RIP” and I was also the only brown kid in my class who had a very thick Indian accent. So, as soon as I introduced myself, you guessed it, the whole class ruptured in laughter. I was so embarrassed and had no idea why they were laughing at me. On that day I decided that I will only speak when spoken to.

Hence, I felt really out of place. As energetic and outgoing I used to be in India. I just became really shy and lonely here :(

Noticing this my dad got me a laptop to keep me occupied. It was an old HP computer with Windows XP. Do you guys still remember that operating system ? seems like eons ago. So, guess what was the first thing I did with my new second-hand laptop that my dad won in a bidding war on E-bay, which I think he ended up over paying for. You guessed it, I went on google and searched up free movies I can watch online (we are a family of movie enthusiasts btw).

I used to watch the bootleg version of every new movie that came out (Am I admitting to crime here ?) Doesn’t matter joke’s on you, this account is posting anonymously. You will never know who I am muahahaha (that was supposed to sound evil).

Anyways, back to Anime. So, I told you I was shy, but believe it or not. A couple months later I made my first friend in America. He was the only other kid who was a minority in the class. Guess what class we bonded in ? (*hint he was Chinese), you got it “MATH CLASS!!”. One day we were casually chatting about streaming free movies and cartoons online and he asked me to check out an anime called “One Piece”. I got hooked!

It has been 12 years since then and I still watch anime. Not as much as I used to but I do pay for Crunchyroll.com (I don’t even pay for Netflix). One Piece is still airing and I am really glad that my friend got me into it. You may be wondering if we are still friends. We have had our ups and downs in life, but yes we are still friends.

Throughout my relationship with Anime I have learned a lot of important life lessons from the characters. Bonded with many people and took up many new hobbies. I will share what I have learned in my next post.

Before I end this, I want to leave you guys with something to ask yourselves,

“What is something I really like and how did I get into it ?” I will love to read your stories.

Thank you very much for taking the time and reading my story.