As much as we all joke about the size names at Starbucks, I’ve never been denied service for saying large. Like, yeah the sizes are stupid, but don’t take it out on the employees. They know it’s dumb and they can’t change it.
For the record, she actually abandoned the movement BEFORE they all got whooping cough, but abandoned it too late. There’d been a breakout of measles in her area that caused her to reassess, and she and her doctor had already drafted and started a catch-up vaccination schedule, but her kids caught whooping cough just before it could be started. Then she wrote a blog post for The Scientific Parent explaining how she and her husband had come to wrong decisions in the first place, how they changed their mind, the consequences they suffered as a result, and asking other parents to please vaccinate their kids. And now she’s an activist for destroying the misinformation of anti-vaxxers, and reaching out to anti-vaxxers because she’s understands their fears but knows their kids deserve better.
She was trying to the best for her kids and just didn’t know how to interpret the validity of information or its sources, an actual skill that can be actually difficult and that is under-taught and a necessary first step to being able to trust vaccination research, so chose no action over taking an action she wasn’t sure of. She kept looking into it with family and friends and even eventually came to the right conclusion before her kids became sick, but it was still too late.
Honestly it was pretty brave of her to publicly admit she was wrong. She could have just quietly vaccinated her kids and not become a national news story, but instead she spoke out, even saying “I’m writing this from quarantine, the irony of which isn’t lost on me.” and also “I am not looking forward to any gloating or shame as this ‘defection’ from the antivaxx camp goes public, but, this isn’t a popularity contest. Right now my family is living the consequences of misinformation and fear. I understand that families in our community may be mad at us for putting their kids at risk.”
She understood the consequences and still put herself and her story out there.
The future new fans of Gravity Falls will never be able to
watch the show like we did, and that’s just heartbreaking.
I’m not talking about having to wait for the episodes. That definitely
sucked.
I’m talking about the fandom getting a leaked image of the “author of the journals,” thinking we were completely spoiled… only to find out it was Alex
trolling us the entire time.
Of course, future fans can go back and look at these things,
and read about them, but it’s not the same. Most people will probably finish
the show first and then learn about these extra things on Wikipedia. That’s fine, but
it’s not half as exciting, and tear-your-hair-out-frustrating, as the adventure
we had.
Plus, it’s hard to just watch the show and figure
out the mysteries on your own. The solutions came from conversations between fans; comparing notes and theories together. Who is the llama symbol? Could Wendy possibly be the bag of ice? There
is always ice when she’s around…
Look at what happens when I play this backwards…
You know, I think Stan
might have a twin brother…
I’m not saying the show can’t be enjoyed without having the
entire internet to theorize with you, but it definitely made it all the more
exciting. More than that, it made the show feel real.
We were alongside Dipper and Mabel, putting the pieces
together just as they were.
Alex and the crew did so much to bring the show to life.
Bill took over his twitter. There were those videos about Stan getting
questioned by the government right before that big episode. The statue that has
still yet to be found… and so many more.
I’m not trying to sound hipster and say we enjoyed it first so we’re better or anything dumb like that. I’m not saying there is a wrong way to enjoy the
show. I’m just saying that the experience we had together as a fandom will
never be had again by anyone.
I feel really lucky that I found the show when I did and I’m
grateful for everything Alex and the crew did to include us.
Bottom line:
We didn’t just watch a mystery show. Together, we solved a mystery show.
