Fan Friday: "I'd be lost without my Boswell."

Although this post is mainly for myself and for fun, you don't have to be a Sherlock Holmes mega-fan to find this post interesting. Today, you are John Watson.

Edward Hardwicke as Dr. John H. Watson in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Anyone who knows me knows I am not a normal fan. If I like something, I love it. For a twenty-year-old, this is majorly embarrassing but a cross I must bear. It may also be the cause of why my list of friends consistently grows shorter each year and I find myself single. Regardless of your fan status, we can all stand to step away from reality and look into the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The mystery Sherlock Holmes has been solving? You.

Congratulations! You are a former member of the British army and an esteemed medical professional. Unfortunately, you have been shot and have returned home to London but are struggling to find affordable housing on an army pension. Luckily for you, you have a friend of a friend with the same issue.

We all know the story from here. Watson meets Holmes and the two run the streets of London, cleaning up the criminal underground. To me, these are anything but stereotypical mystery stories and the literary critic in me will discuss them with you all day. But I have another blog for that.

Today, we discuss you, the "conductor of light."

It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light.

Sherlock Holmes, in one of his signature backhanded compliments, spoke these words to his beloved Watson during The Hounds of the Baskervilles. Arguably, Sherlock Holmes would have been an awful roommate. He never slept, played the violin at odd hours and had a drug habit. Criminals were coming through the doors at all hours and Holmes was undeniably rude. Nonetheless, Watson accompanied until the end of his days.

Not only did Watson accompany him, but he recorded his life right until their retirement. He praised him through writings that made the consulting detective appear as a extraordinary Byronic hero.

No doubt, Holmes was extraordinary, but he was also hardly human. Through Watson, he became a "not only a great man, but a good one." Holmes was such a respected figure that when Doyle killed him off in The Final Problem, the citizens of London flooded the streets wearing black bands and mourning the fictitious detective. When the queen bribed him with knighthood, he relented and wrote The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

John and Sherlock from BBC Sherlock,
 more than 130 years after the first Holmes story was published.

I know by now you have probably lost faith in my ability to not ramble on like a 13-year-old girl obsessed with boy bands. So here's how you can relate Dr. Watson to yourself.

Before Watson met Holmes, he was at the lowest point of his life. He had been wounded in action and returned to London with no family and no money. I have heard scholars argue he had an eating disorder and was even suicidal. By a twist of fate, he met Sherlock Holmes, whose own brother barely claimed him. Watson stayed and lived the best years of his life.

At Watson's core, he is merely a narrator. Compared to the brilliance of Holmes, he "is not luminous" but is "a conductor of light." You are your story's narrator; be your own conductor of light. Write yourself into the best years of your life.

As someone who struggles with depression, I understand how easy it is to hear those words and not abide by them. By far, I am not the first to write them.

Everyday, you get up and start a new chapter. Give your fans what they want, even if you are your only fan. They deserve a good story. Conflict only thickens the plot.