Awww… it’s the feel-good thread of the century!
I’ve been here what… two months? Three? Something like that.
As I mentioned to someone else before in a PM, I am lonely Lisa Simpson and the Dopers are the New Girl with infinitely superior capabilities. On one hand, I’m elated to have found others like myself. On the other hand, I secretly fear that you’re all better than me and I’m just a posing idiot.
I love everything about the Dope Boards. I love all the opportunities to fight my ignorance on everything from foreign policy to lion taming. I love being able to speak to people who are living out things I learned about in the classroom (The ‘‘Ask a Former Cuban Communist’’ thread? Soooo exciting!) I love having my thoughts and beliefs and attitudes challenged… I call this my daily intellectual ass-kicking.
I don’t know how to properly explain this… but I’ll try.
I attend a VERY liberal public university. Things like affirmative action and LGBT rights and evilness of the Iraq war are taken as a given here (there are conservatives, they just cower in fear under their beds most days.) I’m not saying there is no intellectual challenge or critical thinking here–indeed, in many ways my university has taught me to think critically about all manner of issues. My university taught me to question the system and cultivate that bleeding heart o’ mine.
The Dope boards, however, have taught me to question the system that questions the system. In my short time here I have learned the value of rationality and empiricism in rooting out stupid arguments–even on my own side, even coming from myself. I am learning not only to be skeptical (sorry, Liberal, I’m a descriptive linguist, not a prescriptive one)–not only to be skeptical about others’ positions but to be skeptical about my own. I’m learning to call bullshit on things that seem true just because I feel strongly about them.
(Here’s a good example of what I mean. Have you ever read, ‘‘And the Band Played On,’’ a breakdown of the AIDS epidemic and how it was consistently ignored for nearly a decade before anybody took action on it? Well, part of that book which was so controversial is that the author demonstrated how the politics of the Castro district trumped common sense. Nobody in the district wanted to shut down the bathhouses even though they were the number one contributer to the spread of HIV–they saw it as just a political game, self-hating homosexuals trying to stop them from doing what they had fought for the right to do for so long. Because they clung so fiercely to these political ideals, they ignored the science and the impassioned warnings and people died.)
In a way, The Dope Boards have taught me how not to be the Castro district, they’ve taught me not to shoot myself in the foot because of my own emotions, but to look at the facts and evaluate them based on their own merit.
I am not saying I am perfect in this regard, but I am learning. And the gift of critical thinking is something miraculous and impossible to return, thus my irrational emotional commitment to the Boards. It’s like a family here. Some Dope members despise others, but–well like I said, it’s like a family here. If I had my way we’d all live in the same apartment complex and have regular backyard BBQs. I feel that you are all authentic and good people–and a lot of you have many years on my piddly 23 so I have much to learn from the wisdom of my elders. 
SDMB is valuable not only for the intellect but for its great compassion. There is a warmth and a humor here that I have never found anywhere else. My favorite author is Lewis Carroll – extremely intelligent, extremely witty, and extremely compassionate all in one swoop. You guys are the Lewis Carroll of the internet. And the outpouring of support I recently received when I was going through my rough time will never be forgotten. I know this is a safe place, and I value that like I can’t describe.
I hope I’m getting across my message clearly. I think it might be a little sad how much I care about this board and how much I consider it to be a part of my life. Ah, well. I’m in good company. 
