👋 Hellooooo Companions,
Big update this week, I’ve made the initial downpayment for the Limited Edition Hardback, so there’s no going back now! We only have 118 copies left, so if you’re interested in grabbing one, now is the time!
I’m so excited to share our first featured story from Purpose: Embracing Mental Health as a Fandom. This story, written by Moon, comes in Chapter 3: Courage. We received this story early on in the process and it felt like such a wonderful encapsulation of what the book was about, well before we had organized the book into chapters and themes.
Although it’s placed in the chapter about courage, which it has plenty of, the story brings in so, so, so much more. It has humor and humility, loss and longing, friendship and fandom. But most importantly, it shows how, in Moon’s own words, “these random TV shows,” can help lift you out of a low place to new heights you never could have imagined.
I hope you love Moon’s story. We all did when we first read it.
New to The Companion?
Here’s the latest book update:
- Last week, you read Amanda’s introduction to the book.
- If you’d like to stay up-to-date with the book, here’s our public To-Do list
And if you can do me a favor, please share this newsletter with a friend who might be interested.
Today's Featured Story
If you haven’t found yourself in a $30 portable bathtub, in the dead of the night, soaking in water with red cedar branches, just hoping for the love of the universe that the smell of skunk will wear off… then have you ever really lived?!
I was volunteering for a wonderful bear education and rescue (it educates people, and rescues bears, to be clear), when my mentor called about a skunk being trapped in a fishing net. Of course I said I’d help!
So there I was in a paint suit, approaching a terrified skunk with leather gloves and a knife. It was so hot, surrounded by smoke from a distant wildfire. The poor skunk was petrified and in pain. Every time I got close it panicked—SPRAY. My eyes burned like I’d been maced. Eventually, I was able to cut the net around its neck and brought it some water so it could breathe and drink.
The real adventure started when my partner and I had to find cedar logs at 10pm on a Wednesday. Picture us clandestinely driving around in the dark, her screaming “Pass me your knife” to hack branches through the car window. Why for the love of the patron saint of skunks did we not get out of the car is beyond me!
Back home, she set up this flimsy portable bathtub, threw in the branches, and banned me from bed until I de-skunked. So there I was, questioning my life choices, soaking in cedar branches. The cedar worked (mostly)!
Today, I’m a firefighter driving firetrucks on a code 3, I guide people through the most beautiful wilderness on horseback, and I’ve dedicated my life to rescuing the majestic grizzly bears I’ve come to respect and love. But it wasn’t always like this.
I look back at my 17-year-old self: nerdy, chubby, insecure, plastering makeup because that’s what girls were supposed to do, and in the closet living in an extremely conservative small village in France. I felt so stifled, I remember crying myself to sleep. But it wasn’t just my identity that I struggled with. My family life was chaotic. You see, I was 11 when my mother was diagnosed with Stage 0 breast cancer. Fifteen when it came back. Seventeen when we were told it wasn’t going anywhere. I planned on just surviving and enjoying the limited time I had left with my mom. And by the time I turned 20, she passed away.
Immersing myself in the fandom was a way for me to cope. To escape the reality of losing the person I loved the most…
My anchor.
I was so young, I did not know how to process all that. So joining the Stargate and Sanctuary communities became a lifeline.
We used forums back then and would connect through MSN messenger and Skype for hours talking about new episodes, magazines, and the latest merch. I remember around this time, the year of my high school exams, there was a convention in the UK. Being from France, and barely able to speak English, it would take a lot of convincing for my parents to let me go abroad… with strangers… that I met on the internet.
My friends were a bit older, completely understanding, and totally amazing. They agreed to meet my parents on Skype. Lo and behold, a few months later, I found myself on the Eurostar, on my way to meet my internet fandom friends, and the one and only Amanda Tapping!
The whole ordeal was quite embarrassing when I did meet Amanda—I cried and froze…
But when she looked at me and said I was beautiful, I was able to squeak out a tiny, "Bonjour." Not great for self-confidence, but what can you do when you are an awkward teenager meeting your hero?! On the other hand, I can say this was a core memory for me. It became a defining moment.
I believed that good things could in fact happen to me.
Fandom didn’t make the pain go away, and it didn’t keep my mom with me, but without realizing it at the time, I webbed together a support network that to this day still stands strong. My fandom friends opened up my world. It was like I discovered new shades of colours and smells and tastes and languages and it was so wonderful. This little adventurous seed was watered—maybe a bit too much—and life became so much more than it was.
When my mom passed away in 2011, my fandom friends rallied. Everyone was there for me over the phone and on Skype. They sent the most beautiful bouquet of flowers and Amanda sent me a Tweet of support, which was really touching. One of my friends flew from Canada and held my hand during the funeral.
A few months later, I saw Amanda had gone to Nepal, visiting Nepal Orphans Home as part of her non-profit organization Sanctuary For Kids. I had always wanted to visit India and Nepal, and surely if she went, then it was a real place, you know? I went to Kathmandu with my dear friend Elodie, whom I also met through the fandom, and we volunteered with Nepal Orphans Home.
To say that trip was life changing is an understatement. I have visited NOH almost every year since, I even lived there for six months in 2016, and today in 2024, I am a proud board member of the organization. Man, I wish I could go back to my early dark days and tell that nerdy kid that we'd be traveling the world, trekking to the highest mountain in the world, and rescuing animals in Canada. Who would have thunk it? Definitely not me.
And that’s how I found myself drenched in skunk spray, soaking in a tiny bathtub, cedar branches all around me, as forest bugs floated to the surface, reflecting on my life and how far I’d come.
I wouldn't be sitting here today, pager at my hip, ready to hop in the firetruck to help my community, if it hadn't been for these random TV shows I loved so much.
I found my voice and my courage, I came out, and I feel so free. I have lived and experienced so much and I'm so glad I stuck around, there was so much more beyond the fog. You never know what's to come. So hang in there, if you're reading this and wondering if it's worth it, I'm telling you:
“It is. It’s so worth it.”
It's worth hanging on by the tip of your fingers. Someone will come and help you crawl out of the hole. The world is a big place, and it's overwhelming, and not easy to navigate, but if you just hang on, you get to see glimmers of hope and meet the most wonderful people and get rewarded by the most wonderful sights.
It's random and it's a bit chaotic and it does not always make a lot of sense, but hang in there. It's worth it.
Moon, Canada
📘 Hardback and Paperback, Strictly limited
The Collector’s Edition was always limited to 500. 118 copies left, and once they’re gone, they will be gone forever.
The Paperback Edition is a single print run too. Orders will close sometime between Thanksgiving and December (exact date to come).
Have a great weekend 👋
