FORT BENNING, Ga., (May 20, 2015) -- Just like any other kid out there, I was told that I could be anything I wanted when I grew up. People ask children all of the time what they want to be in life - You want to be a policeman? No problem. You want to be an astronaut? Study math and work hard and anything is possible. You want to be an athlete? You need to practice every day. You want to be a superhero? Isn't that adorable.
No, really. I want to be a superhero. And a super villain, and a robot pilot, and an alien and maybe even a creature from your nightmares. We grow up in this world and slowly, over time, our imaginations disappear.
Why is that? Why do we stop dreaming? Why do we fall in line and start thinking in that tiny box?
Well not all of us do. I don't. I can stand in formation, follow orders and I enjoy doing it.
But when I get home, I take off my work uniform and my world is different from many of yours because I have other uniforms at home.
I am a cosplayer. You may have heard that word before. It is a mix of costume and player. Basically, I like to dress up and act like my favorite characters from anime, science fiction, comic books, and even video games. And no, I do not wait for Halloween to roll around.
I do this year-round. I travel to cosplay. I drive my car, ride in airplanes, and invest money into a hobby that in the end, makes me feel like I can achieve anything.
Conventions are a whole different world than anything I experienced before getting into cosplay.
I started about nine years ago while stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington. The biggest conventions in the area were SakuraCon, a Japanese Anime based convention and Penny Arcade Expo, which is focused on the video game industry. I fell in love with the welcoming nature of the cosplay community and have been a part of it ever since.
The cosplay community is just like any community of fans. There is a commonality among the fans of any "thing." A football fan who sees another person wearing his favorite team's jersey can strike up a conversation at any time and cosplayers are no different.
It does not matter how good your costume is. You could have made it out of a cardboard box (trust me, I've seen it) and people will appreciate the effort that you put into it. You will be welcomed, you will be appreciated, and you may even learn from those around you.
Since being stationed in Georgia I have continued to cosplay at conventions in the Atlanta area and smaller ones throughout the state and it seems that events are being created and added all of the time.
The next event that I am preparing for is MomoCon May 29-31. This is one of Atlanta's premier events and one of the most fun that I have had the opportunity to participate in. Last year there were over 15,000 attendees at MomoCon and they are expecting many more this year. To someone who has never experienced an event like this, I highly recommend it.
And remember, it does not matter if you like animation, comic books, video games or something in the realm of magic and fantasy, you will fit right in. You will probably be warped back into how you felt as a child, because when you enter the world of conventions and cosplaying, you will see that you can still be anything you want to be
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