How Fangirls Deal with Hiatus

Do you know that feeling when you finish this book or TV series that you love and then you learn that the next installment comes in a year or two? I hate it when that happens.

As people with fandoms, dealing with hiatus is something that we have to see through in the end. Writers and creators do this for fun so they can build up the suspense and this will make us want more of what they're producing. And don't get me wrong, I appreciate the idea of holding on to the edge of my seat; I just don't like experiencing it because it can kill me. For years and years, I spend every year anticipating for the next book, the next season, or even a brand new release. Wow, Tama. What the heck are you doing with your life?

Surprisingly, we can deal with hiatus. The itching impatience is still there, but fangirls and fanboys can definitely hold out for a year (unless you're part of the Game of Thrones fandom). Assuming we need at least a year to wait for the next big thing, there are stages in a fan's year as to how they keep themselves busy. Luckily, we can measure that in months. Yes my fellow fandom-crazed freaks. We wait in months. Not in decades. Months.

If the art of fangirling needs math (oh no, not this again), we only need to remember five numbers: 2, 3,4,2,1.

Obviously, it takes a lot of time for us to take in a series of unfortunate events. People working on our fandoms nowadays know how to tug on our feels, to the point it becomes unacceptable. So yes, it takes time for one to let things sink in. But that is far from over. We need to keep talking about it until we run out of saliva. In these five months, we do headcanons, probably fanfiction, lurk in Tumblr, and devise theories. We do this...just to feel something.

But we are human too and we get tired. So we take a break, and being the inner lazy people we all are....a week is not enough. We need four months. Hopefully during this time, we try to keep up with our boring lives. Then at a certain point in time, our fandoms will randomly announce that they're going to arrive really soon and this is means that the hiatus is almost drawing to a close. We wake up from our realities and become reckless once again. We lurk in the internet, talk about it some more, come up with wild theories that can pierce our hearts--we do all of this... just to feel something. It also takes a lot of time for us to emotionally prepare ourselves for the worst, of course.

This kind of hiatus does not really feel like you're living the hobo life. You still communicate, you do not just twiddle your thumbs, sometimes you eat out your feelings, and you learn how to prepare especially when it comes to purchasing issues! It doesn't really sound that bad, at all. And during our 4-month break, we explore other things due to our boredom. And again, that's not bad. Discovery is part of life, after all. See what hiatuses can do to us?

Now if you think you cannot survive a hiatus, never fear. I repeat, discovery is part of life. So here's what you can do during your year of hiatus:

1.) Don't just stick to the internet. Join a group. Or at least, find friends you can talk to about it. It's like therapy only better.
2.) Look for other fandoms to annoy. Trying a new fandom may sound like a forbidden temptation, but it never hurts to expand your interests.

and finally...

3.) Evaluate your life. Usually, when we succumb ourselves to something that is totally addicting, we forget what is really going on. I know it sucks but...wake up. Life can be beautiful if you change up your perspective, which is something that fandoms teach us.

Till the next post~