Right Back At It Again

Happy 12th Anniversary, Rooster Teeth! Congratulations on all the lives you've touched with your amazing creativity and beautiful hearts. Today was the public release of Episode 1 of Season 12 of Red vs Blue. So good. Soooo goood. I can't tell you how much I missed these characters. But you know what else I've missed? This community. The conspiracy theories. The excitement and group fangirling. I live for it. And it is back in my life :D And this time, I have someone to physically watch it with me! Hooray for Moises.

A Sense of Community

The Rooster Teeth fandom is far from perfect, but I promise we come together when it matters.

Monty Oum is an employee at Rooster Teeth. He is best known for writing RWBY and doing the fight choreography and motion capture scenes in RWBY and Red vs Blue. He's also a great dancer, a dog person, a loving husband, and an all around wonderful person. Today, we found out that Monty has been hospitalized. "He is currently hospitalized in critical care and it is not known if he will recover. He is receiving the best medical care possible and is surrounded by both family and friends who love him very much."

A go fund me page was created in order to help Monty's family with his medical expenses. The ultimate goal was $50,000.

In the span of 5 hours, they have raised $100,500. And if I know this community at all, that number will only continue to rise until the man we all admire so much is back home with the people he loves. It is the absolute least we can do for a person who has brought so much joy to our lives.

Sending love & prayers to Monty and Sheena in this difficult time.

To donate, visit: http://www.gofundme.com/MontyandSheena

Community

Reason 107: So earlier in the weekend, Youtuber Charlie McDonnell, aka charlieissocoollike posted this video:

Not long after, these video responses were posted:

Currently, there are three whole pages of video responses.

To me, a sense of community isn't found in a small town where everyone knows each other. It's where a bunch of strangers have one thing in common and support each other without hesitation. I love this. It's absolutely inspiring. Not only is one of youtube's most successful vloggers admitting to something that haunts everyone at some point (at every point), but people are coming back saying they understand and doing what they can to reassure him and keep him going. It's absolutely brilliant, so moving, and I'm thrilled this is how I started my day.

I extend this challenge to you. Today we're being selfless, but TOMORROW, do something for yourself. Something you're scared of doing because of what others may think of you. "Take a minute. Take a day. Take a week. And just be scared. And then stop. And don't let it get to you."