What is a Fandom?

I have never been one to join fan sites, yahoo fan boards or post to boards about a celebrity or a musician. I have been a fan Elvis Presley since I was a little kid and I surfed the internet to see what information there was out there about Elvis, that I might not know, but I did not join the boards or post on them. I didn’t join a fan club, I just quietly read and then went about doing something else. Then there was Taylor Hicks.

I started out just intending to read a little about him so I could write my first, and at the time, I thought my only article about him. I discovered TOSP first and soon I joined and starting posting. I discovered there were people just as crazy over Mr. Hicks as I was.

I soon sought out more websites and groups about him and I joined almost everyone I found. I post to some still but mostly at TOSP and Taylor Hicks Headquarters. What is it that keeps us posting at these boards? Is it just Taylor and what is gong on in Taylor news at any given time? That is part of it but I think a lot of it is that because we all share the mutual love and respect we have for Taylor Hicks; we have grown to know each other. We have become friends and confidents. In some cases we are closer to or fellow Soul Patrol friends than we are to even some our own family members or real life friends.

We can express our love and admiration of Taylor and we don’t get the eye rolls or the “Oh God not Taylor again” sentiments those in our life might give us. We all have a common bond. Though we all might support Taylor in different ways we all still admire him so much for fighting to get his voice heard. Through Taylor we have created lasting friendships that mean very much to us. We send each other gifts, cards, pictures and videos of Taylor and just words of encouragement when times in our life are hard.

A fandom can be complicated at times. It can be aggravating at times. Some times we might even start to agree with our family and friends and think we need rehabs. But one thing is for sure a fandom is a source of many things. It is a source to keep up with all things related to our Soul Man, it is a source to reach out for a helping hand when something is wrong, if you need a prayer, and thousands will send the prayer up into the heavens. Our hearts are warmed by the love we know we can find in friends we have made in the fandom. A fandom is a source to make friends that will last a lifetime.