That's a beautiful way of putting it. I only started participating in fandom in my early twenties (although the fannish feelings were, of course, a constant in my life for much longer), so I don't quite have the same decades of continuity that you do, but I appreciate it nonetheless.

I also like that it's given me this unbroken, continuous written record of my life (through the mechanism of my interests and obsessions), and I can look back, and see how I've changed.