Written By: Colleen McAllister from ChuckCast and Nudia TV

I’d know Katie T. since preschool. We grew up in the same condominium complex, had play dates in the kiddie pool together at age 3, took dance lessons together from age 4-14, and were in a lot of the same classes in middle school and junior high. We had a friendly relationship but were in different groups at school and rarely talked outside of the car rides to and from tap class. It wasn’t until I sat behind her in Mr. Ball’s social studies class in 9th grade that we finally found something to bond over: The X-Files. I had started watching XF earlier that year with my dad and until that fateful moment that Katie told me she had been a longtime fan, or X-Phile as I learned was the proper term, my TV fandom was limited to Monday morning discussions of The Practice with my friend Brian. I had no idea that what lay behind.

Katie quickly caught me up. Not only did she provide a friend to diligently and excitedly discuss and dissect each episode with, but she was my gateway into the world of the fan community. She taught me what a ‘ship’ was. She introduced me to websites where I could check out episode reviews, see what other people thought of them, and learn trivia about each one. She told me about an X-Files fan conference that had been held recently. My first X-F episode was “Chinga,” February 8, 1998, Season 5. I wanted to catch up. I needed to learn more about the mythology so I became obsessed with taping new (old) episodes on FX every night and always voted in their Thanksgiving Day X-F marathon.

It was awesome. If it weren’t for Katie T’s early teaching, I think my life would have turned out very differently.

It was around Christmas 2005 that my friend Chris G. introduced me to the first season of Lost on DVD. “It’ll blow your mind,” he promised as he convinced me to use some gift certificate money to buy it for myself. “I can’t wait ‘til we can talk about it!” I was home from college for winter break and still hesitant to watch it, but he hounded me and hounded me to check it out until finally I did. He told me to wait until I saw the episode “Walkabout” until I passed judgment.

It wasn’t an instant click for me, but it was an instant curiosity. I pushed through that first disk until I knew that Lost and I would be spending many more nights together. After I watched Season 1, Chris and I would bug our friends who had not yet converted while my old high school group would hang out by yakking about smoke monsters and hatches. Neither of us had watched Season 2 yet, it was still in the midst airing on ABC.

Once we got back to college, we had a different re-watch schedule. Desperate to find someone to shed some meaning on what the hell was going on, I reverted back to what Katie had taught me: the Internet. I discovered lost.cubit.net first. Then I turned to podcasts. My first Lost podcast experience was with The Transmission’s final episode. They directed me to The Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack. Sometime in late November 2006, Jay & Jack directed me to their message boards and the rest, as they say, is history.

There’s something to be said about fan communities. From the outside, it looks like a bunch of crazies with not a lot of friends who are looking for escape in a television show or book series. I think I hid the fact that I was on Lost message boards from my “real life” friends until after I had to explain how Jay and I met in April 2007. Even then, I still give an abbreviated version to most people. Maybe they’re right, but I choose to look at the fan community as an anonymous way to share one’s enthusiasm for something full- on. I do know one thing, however, and that’s that I cannot imagine my life without some of the amazing friends that I have met through my online-fan communities. I have experiences I never would have and a boyfriend I’d never have met. To me, fan communities have not only changed my life, they have enhanced it and I wouldn’t give mine up for the world.

Some of these I have been a part of at one point or another and some of these I haven’t but here’s my list of Top 10 Fan Communities:

1. Lost

2. Star Trek (etc. al.)

3. Star Wars

4. Harry Potter

5. Whedon Fan Community

6. The X-Files

7. Battlestar Galactica

8. Dr. Who

9. Twilight

10. Smallville

Runner up #1: Arrested Development – It’s not so much a community as a clique because AD fever began during the show’s 3rd season and has grown in popularity after the series ended. AD quoting is found everywhere from Tweets to the workplace; go ahead and try to pretend like you don’t light up like you’re in a secret, smart-people’s club whenever you hear someone exclaim, “Come ON!”

Runner up #2: Glee – Time will tell, but the enthusiasm among Glee fans is contagious…

For more on Colleen visit CollWrites.