It is the end, my friends. Well, the end of My Chem’s ten-year anniversary celebrations on Indifferent Ignorance, anyway. The year’s not quite over, I may yet pull something MCR-related out of my woolly hat later this year – but today is the final installment of ’10 Years, 10 Days’.

Lizbeth told me to ‘make this one special’, since I’ve already discussed every aspect of My Chem. The band, what the band likes to talk about, the music, the visual, the live shows, the origins, how I started listening, the fans, the fans’ creativity, what people really mean when they say “MCR saved my life.” The world’s reaction to the above. I’m honestly not sure what to add, apart from a massive thank-you to everyone who’s contributed, commented, Retweeted, Liked and kept me going when I’ve texted them going “I CAN’T DO THIS IT WAS A STUPID IDEA NEVER LET ME WRITE TEN BLOGS IN TEN DAYS EVER AGAIN.” In the last fortnight I’ve learnt a lot about blogging, writing and the realms of the Interwebz; I also like to think I’ve improved as a writer – and I owe that to this audience (incidentally, this is my 150th post. Thank you to everyone who’s stuck with this shit).

I read back everything I’ve posted just now, and I’m actually quite proud of what I’ve achieved. Any blogger (and I mean actual blogger, not Tumblr person) knows how hard it can be to write one post, let alone a handful, on an off-day. There are typos I’ve had to fix, I’ve had problems with WP loading pictures and videos and I’ve been running on caffeine and chocolate for most of the last few weeks… Not entirely unusual, but I was expecting to start the new school term with good habits. Instead, I’ve been typing until half ten, doing homework in the mornings and spending considerable amounts of the school day trying to work out how much coursework I can put off until this whole thing is over. There have been moments, when it’s almost midnight and I’ve still not completed the day’s post, that I’ve cursed myself for having the idea in the first place. Many a time I’ve decided that I never want to hear another My Chem song in my life – or at least for a few weeks – once I’ve wrapped it up.

And yet, virtually every time I’ve sat down to write I’ve been able to come up with something. That’s not down to my unlikely ability to string words together either, it’s down to you lot. The casual readers whom I’ve wanted to convince should listen to MCR for some reason. The Killjoys, whose art, humour and determination are the reasons I’ve been able to write ten substantial posts. You are the most crazy, inspiring, intelligent people out there. Thank you for letting me wave this in your faces for a fortnight. I promise, the next blog will have no relevance to the My Chemical Romance whatsoever – we can go back to discussing The Midnight Beast and Wierd Al. Thank you also to the band, whose work is the reason I’ve been able to do this in the first place. There’s a reason so many people draw hope and creativity from you, please never lose sight of that.

My aim, when I was working out the format of these blogs, was to capture the essence of My Chem in separate posts. To make people understand a little better why the fan base is so huge and dedicated, to remind fans of why they listen to the band in the first place; something that’s becoming more and more eclipsed by Internet bitchfits and cat fights between kids. I could discuss whether or not those kids are real fans all day (I actually did once) but ’10 Years’ hasn’t been about the negatives of the MCRmy. It’s been about the positives of MCR and why they’re going to be around for another ten years after this:

Great bands found loyal fan bases. Fan bases create communities which allow the bands and audiences to interact and grow. Communities don’t give up on one another or lose sight of their purpose, they will support one another through everything that gets thrown their way. The fans give the bands reason to continue, and so the cycle continues…. And My Chemical Romance aren’t a great band, they’re an exceptional one.