5 Essential Fandom Lessons To Take With Us in 2020

Gone is the trashfire year of 2019, and in enters a whole new twelve months ahead to create. While we might want to leave the past behind us, it's good to learn from what fandoms such as movies and tv shows might've taught us. Before we dive too deep into 2020, here are some fun and essential lessons we can take with us into the new year. 

Are there any lessons you learned from your favorite fandoms? Feel free to share in the comments below!

Embrace Your Other Half

Where would you be if you weren't enjoying your life as it is right now? Honestly, we'd never really know if it would be better, worse, or even just the same. For every one of us there is a world of possibilities of who we could become, another half that might not be living up to its fullest potential, another half that might be scared of losing it all. Whatever your other half may be - fears, regrets, privileges, vices, opportunities - try not to run away or shut it down, embrace it. Use what you can to help people who don't have access to make things better for themselves.

Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover

Sometimes we peg ourselves into a certain box so much that we forget that other people fall into their own traps too. Today, especially with social media, not everybody is the image they provoke and fall into the incidental assumptions we have. Be open to doing the opposite of how you usually live - take chances, live a little, put yourself out there. Keep an open mind that maybe how somebody looks to the world is not necessarily how they feel about themselves. Don't judge a book by its cover, including yourself.

Kill the Past If You Have To

It's a new year, so welcome the idea of a new you. The past can serve its purpose of teaching us new things about ourselves or helping us from repeating the same mistakes. But don't let it define you or hold you back. Sometimes we stay in our comfort zones by looking back at the past and seeing how it held us back or how we didn't end up where we want to be now. Kill the past if you have to, so you can keep your future free and define yourself on your own terms - not what your family, the galaxy, or the world thinks you have to be.

Your Emotions Can Be Your Greatest Strength

There are people that really don't get what this arc is about. Huh. Well, Yon-Rogg tries to teach Carol to control her emotions in order to use her power, all the while brainwashing her to think she is somebody else and her powers are for him to use for his own gain. Captain Marvel taught us we don't have to hide our emotions. You can not only figure out who are you with them, but use them for good. You have nothing to prove to people about who you are, what you feel, and what you're capable of.

Your Dreams Are Your Own

As Jo breathtakingly points out in Little Women (2019), everyone, especially women, have minds, beauty, hearts, souls, talent, and ambition. Love is not all we're fit for, but in the face of our own choices, we can feel split between having it all or compelled to strive towards one thing society expects of us. Our dreams are different from each other's. It's up to us to let people have their own visions of their lives and pursue what they truly want, and figuring out what that means for ourselves.

Bonus: Don't let D&D be in charge

Until Hollywood stops letting generic lazy men run franchises/write female characters, or gives women more opportunities to direct: approach new fantasies and sci-fi series with caution. And if D&D are in control at all, climb the nearest dragon and fly away. Apparate. Use the force. Don't blink and run. Call on the Tardis and get out as fast as you can.