I have always adored super heroes, comics, fantasy, and ideas. No, I had never been a die-hard fan, collecting figurines and rare comic books, but I knew more than enough to be considered a ‘fan’. I could describe Sally Jupiter’s costume almost exactly. I knew every one of Superman’s powers. I could tell you that my favorite super power was ‘phasing’, which was held by the super hero Kitty Pryde (A.K.A Shadowcat) from X-men. But after yesterday, July 24^th, my liking for comics and entertainment, thought to be ‘dorky’ or ‘nerdy’, has grown into a love.

            Over the years, I had always heard about this huge event held at the convention center, but had never paid too much attention to it until the last couple of years. Some of my friends would attend, and brought back lovely gifts back for me. Since then, I had a really strong urge to go for myself. This year, my friend, Gabi, called me and said she wanted me to go to comic con with her. I was very excited and immediately worked on a costume to match.

            Our group had a total of 4 people, each of us dressed as a character from Pokemon. Jasmine was Ash Ketchum, Gabi was Misty, Angela was Pikachu, and I was a Pokemon called Togepi. I had worked extremely hard on my costume, perfecting it, fixing it, and altering it. But alas, I had finished it on my own, and was very proud.    

            Our goal was to get at least one person to come up and want a picture with us, but over the course of the day, dozens and dozens came up, getting excited, and taking pictures with us. It was an absolutely beautiful feeling. As if I was such an important person. I especially loved when someone would run from many yards away, calling out the name Togepi, just to get my attention. I saw this even from fully-grown adults, getting extremely excited to see a character they used to see when they were much younger. It was one of the best feelings I encountered at the Con.

            The sea of people, at first, just overwhelmed me. It wasn’t so much the density or the number of people that shocked me, but the diversity of them. To me, it felt like this is where the population of the world was meeting up. Each person represented a different part or aspect of the world. I had never truly realized how large and beautiful the convention center was until I  fully experienced it. Over the course of the day I could remember where some of my favorite booths were and could avoid getting lost.

Celebrities attended as well. I saw (but didn’t particularly meet or get the autograph of) many different celebrities. There were many stars at Comic Con over the course of the 4 days, but I only went one day, and only saw a portion of them. I saw people such as LL Cool J (NCIS), Blake Lively (Gossip Girl), Tom Felton (Harry Potter), Jerry Trainor (I Carly), Don Cheadle (Iron Man 2), the cast of Fringe, V, and the Vampire Diaries. 

I tried out unreleased video games, bought many new comic books, and had a great time with my friends. I was amazed at how many people were interested in the same thing I am.

Just seeing the impact this place has on people was completely astounding. I met the most phenomenal people who I could relate to, who I could look up to, who I wanted to be like. They weren’t super heroes, they weren’t famous people, they weren’t like mainstream society, but they were just like me. I’m the weird girl of the crowd. Always have been and always will be. And I kind of like it. Sometimes I don’t, just for the way people look down upon me. But there, at Comic Con, I felt normal. I had no worries. I didn’t care about a thing. As if everything that was ever bad, just, went away.