Your "awakening"

Howdy! I am curious how everyone in this community came to the conclusion of what species, being or thing they are / identify as, the process of conforming certain parts of your identity. Your "awakening", if you will.

I am curious about things like: -If you identify as something/someone considered "fictional" in this world;- Did you recognize yourself instantly when you saw yourself in the media about your life or did it take you a while to get used to the idea that that might be you? Did you search for yourself in media or did it come across your path randomly? Is the media something you interacted with at a young age or did it only get released recently and how did it feel to witness yourself?
-If you identify as an earthly or mythical (animal) species;- Did you look into or question your species or did you know instantly what you are? Did you know your species from a young ageand then came across the nonhuman community and thought "oh so that is what I have been experiencing!" or did you come across the nonhuman community and thought "I have always felt nonhuman but I don't know what I am yet" and how did you go on figuring that out?

Did you misunderstand yourself and thought you were one thing but turned out to be another? How did you cope with the feeling of the change in how you see yourself?

Please feel free to share as much or as little as you want as a reply, I will probably also post my own awakening in the comments as well. Thank you for reading and interacting, if you do.