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On "Otherkin Angst"

I think we've all seen this person before. Some of us might be this person, or were this person before. It's someone we can all relate some experience with.
"I used to be such a beautiful/powerful/graceful/BETTER thing before. Now look at me... I'm human. What did I do to deserve this? This sucks."

Ladies and gentlebeings, meet one of the greatest foes you'll ever face. Otherkin angst. This will ruin your life if you let it, and I am not kidding when I say that. I've known a few Otherkin who write off this world as something they didn't and don't want, myself included at an unfortunate part of my life.

It usually starts innocently enough with a longing for what you once had. I'm sure you've all felt it before. It's a desire for wings to carry you through the sky, or a tail that itches at the base of your spine, or maybe it's just a snout that would feel that much more comfortable than the squished-in thing called a face that you have now.
Maybe it's a yearning for the world you used to inhabit. I can't say much on this point, having no recollection of any one world besides this one, but the feeling is the same. You want the old society, or the vastness of familiar territory around you, or maybe just the feel of a different sun on your back. Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

Now, this is bound to happen sometimes. It happens with non-'kin too, for different reasons. And it's normal. But when you draw away from the world around you in bitterness because it's not like the one you used to inhabit, or when you hold contempt for your body because it's not the one you used to have, or you hate humans because they do not see or accept you for what you are, remembrance becomes angst.
Angst serves absolutely no purpose, and harms the psyche when left unchecked. It's self-parasitism. Occasional moping is... well, acceptable. Sometimes you can't help it. Being depressed can do that. But things like... oh, species dysphoria, for example, to jab at Otherkin, is essentially pining away for what you can't have and don't need. It's a lot like sobbing over not having a Members Only jacket when you have a wool turtleneck. Yes, the designer label is so much better, but ultimately that cheap wool does the same thing. And when it comes right down to it, in the hard times and the freezing weather it's not going to make a difference what's written in the cloth.

One's physical existence is very easy to take for granted, especially in a materialistic society such as the ones prevalent on Earth today. When you're in the middle of your life, dealing with the day-to-day problems and goals, it's quite easy to forget how very fragile life is, and how special it is to be able to experience it. Even the non-reincarnationalists among us cannot deny this point - whether you believe in an afterlife or not, whether you believe you get one or more cycles through the ringer, life is fragile and fleeting.

It might be better, perhaps, to consider the alternative. Wouldn't it be incredibly boring to just be floating as a spirit, watching, unable to affect anything? To watch and never to do? Or worse, simply not to exist at all?
Maybe you used to have scales, wings, and a tail. Yeah, that's pretty incredible. And now you only have this weak stuff called skin, barely any fur to cover it, and no limbs but arms and legs. Maybe it's a crying shame that you've been downgraded this far.

Think about this for a moment. You have been placed on this planet, in this society, in this species, at a time of CONSTANT change. Ideas and movements and thoughts are changing and evolving, being born and dying, in every moment of every minute of every day. You're a part of a world that is constantly and unceasingly on the edge brink of something new. That's priceless. Absolutely priceless. And you know what? The non-'kin better read this paragraph just as seriously, because everyone should appreciate this: it is just as special for those who are perfectly happy in their human bodies..
And for all you dragon-'kin, or former quadrupeds out there... try dancing on four legs. Think about what you missed out on last time around. And fully articulated hands, built for the sole purpose of manipulation.
Song. Yes, song and music exist on other worlds as well. What about rock and roll? Disco? Classical music, composers like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven? I'd bet my life that music on this world is so vastly different from what we've heard before that you've never heard anything close. There is a beauty in music here unmatched by anything else. And hell, I'm just talking about the white-bread U.S. and European popular stuff that makes up a visible tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Ideas of social interaction and harmony have come and gone like leaves on wind here. Philosophies and thought abound, even if you can't see it in the people who live around you. And expression doesn't stop at serious thought, it keeps on going into the inane and irrelevant. Human humor is one of the most ecstatically enjoyable things I've ever encountered.
How about the Internet? Ever seen anything like it before? A completely artificial construct based on no purpose less noble than absolute freedom of thought.

Earth is no more or less special than any other world. It is a unique place with a unique culture, unique attractions, unique problems, and unique and infinite experiences. There are, of course, many things about Earth that are not unique- but it would be a terrible mistake to miss out on what Earth has to offer, whether it's the only place for it or not, just because you aren't quite shaped the way you think you should be shaped.

The way I see it, you've got a moral obligation to encourage yourself and others to enjoy and appreciate life, and also to encourage yourself and others to have a damn good time at it while everyone's here. If you can't do it, then it's really a shame, whether you're human, something else, delusional, whatever. I'm a dragon, or I just think I'm one for whatever good or bad or whatever reason. I'm also having a fun time of things, and trying to help others have a fun time of things too. And when you get right down to it, it's how much you enjoy what life's given to you that matters most. Not what you think you are, not what you think of others, not the things you like or dislike, not what you make, not what you leave behind. That Wiccan Rede of "have fun 'n' harm none" is damn good advice for everybody, regardless of species.

You are human now. And I am not saying this with a tone of resignation, but with wonder. We are human. Wow.

Life is such an incredible gift in any of its uncountable forms that it would be a shame to ever pass it off as worthless. Maybe it's not the life you had before, true. But that doesn't mean that you can write off another miracle of existence just because it's not the same miracle you got the last time around.

At the same time, it's okay to be unhappy that you don't have wings or claws or a snout. But there is really not much you can do about that. What you can do is appreciate life as it is, and live it as a dragon, as a human, as whoever you want to be. You can feel like you should have wings, a tail, a mane, some claws, and you can surf the internet, enjoy electronic music, dance the night away. You can philosophise, and joke, and role-play, you can draw and sing and create. You can fight against injustice, environmental destruction or war. And you can be a dragon when you do all these things.

Take a look at the world around you, and at the body that you have now. Think about the things you CAN do with it, not about the things you can't. Think about this world and the complexity it holds, in nature and in humanity. There is more to this single world than any being could absorb in their lifetime. Take a good long look, and maybe you'll see why next time around it's likely that you'll think of yourself as Otherkin again, because of what you've been before.

Edited by Raki.