heads up: this is a sort of happy rant about why i love conventions so read if you wish.
conventions.
the professional term is "a large meeting or conference, especially of members of a political party or a particular profession."
instead,
i call them a place to hang around people from all over the world with the same interests as you.
If you know me personally (or over the internet), you probably know I love conventions. Cons of all sorts. Anime. Video Games. Sci-Fi. All sorts of things that fit my interests.
Why though?
Personally, I dont have many friends in real life that are interested in the same things I am interested in. Even if they are, they either can never go anywhere with me because they are too busy, or they live like 4000 kilometers away. So I am basically always stuck in my home- isolated from society, and sitting in front of my computer all day.
Thats where conventions come in.
as I mentioned before, they are to bring people of a certain interest together from all around the world.
a couple of years ago, I went to my first convention alone. Anime North 2015 in Toronto, Canada. I went alone because at that time there was nobody I was aware of that liked anime. Nobody i knew liked the video games i did (like nintendo games). When i went, i did not expect to make any friends. let alone TALK to anyone.
at that time, i was (and still am) really into sports anime. my bias at that time was this volleyball anime called haikyuu. I went to a panel (a small group of ppl discussing a very certain topic) not expecting anything. I realized there were people all around me. Even in my own city who liked the exact same things i did. The rest of the weekend i ended up making a couple of friends (still my best friends up till this date) and hung with them for the entire weekend.
That was my FIRST experience.
My second one was Fan Expo and I also met literally 10 celebrities and it was great (even though i went alone!!)
Not only is that conventions make me social and lets me communicate with people who love the same things I do, I also get to learn literally anything school never taught me.
A few days ago, i went to anime north 2017. I decided to go to some more panels than the other years. I went to one that taught me how to write better. I went in it not expecting more than a generic lesson they teach at school, but when i came out of that room one hour later, my entire writing style changed. I also went to a game dev panel and it taught me how to do animate and do basic coding in one hour.
In the end, I just want to say this.
It is just mindblowing to see over 15,000 people that come from different countries just for a con gathered up in one room chanting the same song and loving the same thing.
It is mindblowing to see all those people that speak different languages, come from different backgrounds, race, different stories, eveything, just communicating to each other like they knew them forever even though they just met.
It is just so amazing to see that there are so much people who love the same things you do. Have the same passion for things as you do.
I love how everyone at conventions just forget the past, dont stress about the future, and just focus on the present, having the time of their lives.
I love how language barriers dont stop people from communicating.
Because in the end
Fandom.
Fandom is what brings us together.
If you are reading this, I garuntee you are in at least one fandom.
Most of the people that read my books are from Team Grimmie.
How would be know who each other even IS without finding each other through fandom.
Fanbases........
Fanbases is one of the bright shining stars in this dark tinted world.
