Thirteen years ago I auditioned for the performing street cast of the Ohio Renaissance Festival. Thirteen years ago I met some of my very best friends, and I met my husband. Thirteen years ago I moved to Colorado for a day, then drove 23 hours back home. Unemployed, and disheartened I found a new home at ORF.
Almost 13 years to the day, my life changed again in the very same way. Magic City Con.
Once again, I found another home, another family, another group of people who I felt I had known my whole life, been looking for my whole life, a group of people who understand me at my core, a group of people who understand me in a way no one else understands me.
To find your second family once in life is a gift. To find them again is a miracle. I have spent the last 13 years with my faire family, thankful that I have found home, thankful that these people are there for me when I need them, thankful that I have found my place in this world, a place that loves me for who I am, a place where I can always be myself and feel safe and loved. I have spent 13 years in this place, returning every summer to wallow in love and fun, to pour myself into The Blaze and embrace her zest for life, her zaniness, and her ability to spread joy and her energy.
This past weekend it happened all over again. I traveled across the country with three other women I had never met in person, to attend a Con with other people I had never met in person, to meet the man who voiced the character that made me fall in love with a fandom that has given me one of the greatest gifts ever: an entirely new family.
I had a small family growing up. I gravitated towards friends with large families, friends who invited me to family functions to eat and drink and be merry. I'm still friends with those ladies today. I still see their families from time to time, grateful to have those memories, grateful to those people who took me in and gave me the family I craved.
The Ohio Renaissance Festival was one of those friends. For 13 years I have been embraced by a family that chose me and that I chose in return. For 13 years I have found myself time and time again surrounded by people who love me unconditionally, people who bring me true joy and happiness, people who know what it's like to find that second family.
At Magic City Con I was blessed to find it all over again. I marveled in my luck, telling my husband how amazed I was to feel those same feelings of love and acceptance. Magic City Con changed my life.
I laughed. I cried. I hurled. (No, thankfully, no hurling, unless you count threats. Sorry, Mary.)
Immediately, I felt like I had always known these people, like I had been searching for them to complete me. Many of them I had befriended what feels like years ago, discussing Dragon Age alongside of our deepest wants and desires, even though it's mostly just Cullen. Some of them I only met last week. Even so, I embraced them into my fold of my dearest friends, only forgetting about one of them one time. (Sorry, Mary.)
I'm sad that I won't be able to go to DragonCon with most of them since I'll be busy at the opening weekend of ORF. That, and I can't afford another Con this year. But, I look forward to next year's Magic City Con. I will be there, traveling 8 hours in a car with 3 of my closest friends, friends that I only met in person a year ago, but friends that have their own special place in my heart.
I look forward to late night chats, game tips, group fics and pics, stories about our dogs and cats, beta reading, heartbreaks and heartaches, new loves and old loves, donuts, shit coffee, death wishes, cosplays,
I look forward to the family reunion that will be Magic City Con every year.
Thank you to each and every one of you. Thank you for being my newest family. Thank you for coming into my life. Thank you for keeping me up late, for cosplaying with me, for talking about Dragon Age, for introducing me to Mass Effect and Fallout 4. Thank you for loving me, and hugging me, and crying with me. Thank you for being you. And thank you for loving me for who I am.
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