UmiBirthdayGiveaway Entry!

Dear readers, I realize how this may sound silly to others..and how my passion may be kinda dumb since Umi is just a fictional character but...I would like to share with you all with my story of discovering sif and realizing how much I love this character...! The first person who introduced me ever into idols, which was through SIF (yes, I was a fan of the game first...), was my friend Ellos! They're still one of my closest friends to date and..even though I make jokes about how they dragged me into hell, I honestly wouldn't be the person today without them. Funnily enough, at the time I had gotten into the game I was in a really..embarassing phase of my life. I was into minecraft and my little pony, and lots of pretty basic franchises most kids liked... But I truly believe that sif was the hyperfixation that pulled me out of all that. It gave me something to devote my time to, and a place for me to feel like I was improving in terms of the game. I pretty quickly on in the game (one week to be exact!) got a UR of my best girl, Umi! I think thats what solidified her as my favorite, which of course isn't the only thing I really loved about her. I soon watched the anime on my horrible iPod, with my crunchyroll app (not sponsored) and it just made me fall in love even FURTHER with the sea queen! She was beautiful, rational, smart, capable, but she had a shy side, a side where she truly loved her friends, a side where she was willing to throw away her doubts and insecurities to preform with Honoka and Kotori. She was everything I wanted to be as a person and a friend.

As I mentioned before, I was in a pretty embarrassing time in my life when I discovered SIF. I was the kid who you get secondhand embarassment from and I'm honestly dissapointed that I can say I used to be someone who proudly called themself a "fujoshi". I would say that "yaoi is BETTER THAN YURI!!! x3" and yeah, I know it was..really bad. Sif really helped with that though...I began to realize the beauty of girls. It may sound dumb but, I truly believe sif and Umi helped me find my sexuality. It was a chance for me to explore my attraction to the cuteness and femininity of the girls. And I can proudly say that I'm a bisexual...or a lesbian, still figuring that one out... Umi was a crucial role in helping me realize that because sadly I was growing up in an extremely conservative and homophobic home and I previously would tell myself that I would never like girls seeing my mom get so mad at my brother for being bisexual...I had accepted that I would have to be straight in order to not be yelled at (even more) by my mom. Of course I realized I was wayyy to attracted to Umi and the other sif girl's cuteness in order to be straight.

Umi was one of the first idols I ever loved, she was the gateway character who dragged me into many, MANY other idol games and stories...And I truly am grateful for that as well. I'm grateful to her, for all of the things she's done in my life. I don't have any impressive merch collections (which is why I WoulD LOVVEEE to FINALLY have some merch of her!! i seriously would die for a keychain of my girl) ..and I can't say that I have all of her cards but she means the world to me. I can't stand seeing people hating on her unnecessarily, I don't really think anyone can see someone hating one of their favorites tbh! I really cherished her birthday, and seeing all of the love and fanart. I truly believe that Umi was just as a positive influence in other's lifes as she was in mine and I cannot, absolutely cannot thank her enough. Even if I get no likes on this post, or I don't win anything, I hope to show someone, anyone, how much this girl has been one of the most driving positive influences in my life. And I'm grateful that, I was able to have my friends to push me to improve myself, just like Honoka and Kotori did for Umi...

Sea queen forever! Thank you for dragging me so far into this rabbit hole and thank you for being one of my comforts in my life.

note: yes all art/edits i post will be by me!! no art thievery here, respect artists and their hard work and talent!

and remember, umi best girl. that is all thank you~ i really hope i can win something from this just so I can finally have a personal memento of umi...i don't have much of my girl due to the fact that I dont have very much personal money and my parents would probably never buy me anime stuff...