Well its official I have it. PCD - Post Con Depression.
What is that you ask ?
Well, its that feeling you get after attending a fan convention. That sad, teary eyed feeling that starts somewhere around the middle of the final day of the convention and lasts for about a week or so.
About now people who are not involved in the 'lifestyle' are rolling their eyes and going: "Wait, hold up, you cry after one of those things? I thought you were going to make yourself HAPPY!!!"
Of course I go to make myself happy, but what makes me happy isn't all wrapped up in the celebrities I may meet.
People who don't partake don't understand why we go to fan conventions like Creation Con or Eyecon or the holy grail - Comic Con. Generally, the casual observer thinks we go to 'ooooo' and 'aaahhhh' over the attractive cast of our favorite television show or movie. Certainly, that does happen. Its fun to listen to the actors answer fan questions or show off their other talents besides acting. Its fun to have a photo with an actor you admire or to get an autograph. The actors that attend these things are all about making sure their fans are as happy as possible. They take it all in stride as young girls burst into tears at the sight of their favorite, in the case of 'my' Con of choice, vampire, wolf or witch. And they maintain their cool as some not so young women paw at them. Or as they, for goodness sake, lick them, yeah you read that right.
Detour...
Can I just say 'Eeeww! that's a Violation with a capital V! Do you want to be licked by a random stranger? No, you don't; so don't do that to an actor. The rest of us would like the actors to continue to attend these things and give us little hugs in our photo ops - which they won't keep doing if they feel compelled to get a shot of penicillin after each Con. Please and thank you. Rant over.
Back to our regularly scheduled musings...
Having those photo ops and autograph sessions is fun. Even for a grown up like me. It gives me a moment to be a kid and shake the hand of the person who brings my favorite characters to life once a week. I love my vampires - each and every one of them. I love them in the books and I love them on the TV show. I have my favorite - his name begins with a 'D' and ends with an 'amon'.
Yup, I definitely get my inner kid on at these things and I have fun doing the FAN thing.
But if you think I save up my money for a year or tell my parents that yes, I want Walker Stalker tickets for my 50th birthday simply because I need to get my Fan Girl on, you really don't know anything about me or Con's and the people who attend them.
Really, we go to these things to see each other, as much if not more than to see the men and women who bring the characters we love to life. We are people who share a love of a story told on TV. We are also people who don't even watch the show that inspires the event, but we go to the Con because we support a charitable endeavor of an actor from the show. Either way we are going to be with people who share the same passions as we do. Like minded people.
As I was driving home yesterday and PCD started to sink in I was wondering, well why do we get PCD? So I thought on what I said above about why we go to these things. I got to the point where I realized that we were all like minded and I continued to think about that for a few miles. What is it about us that is like minded because an outsider wouldn't think it was true if they looked at us.
I realized that in my case I am surrounding myself with people who are incredibly kind and supportive. People who accept others as is. Flaws and all. We share rooms and meals for three days. We dance and sing together. We laugh. We catch up. But as I said, if you lined us all up next to each other and you were an outsider you would NEVER believe we would all be friends. On the surface we all appear to be so different. There are different age ranges, different socio economic backgrounds. Different religions. Different races. Oh and don't get me started on hair colors, hair styles and body art - the variety of all of that would blow your mind! There is some EPIC body art to be found at Cons.
So what makes us 'the same' besides the TV show aspect? Well there is an abundance of kindness and mutual respect for each other. Even if someone might bug someone else with some little quirk or another its a minor blip, not a big deal, because we all seem to have the same underlying belief that our differences are what make us awesome. Even if we really don't gel with someone completely, we are still kind to them. We are family. And we love each other. We really do.
And the next thing I realized is that we show that love in the form of touch, specifically hugs.
We hug. We all hug.
I hug EVERYONE I KNOW ALL THE TIME at these things. Its a huge lovey hug fest. The minute I walked in the doors and set my stuff down I was hugged by someone I hadn't seen since October. And before I left I hugged people goodbye. And then I realized who I hadn't seen before I left - who I hadn't given that one last hug to. And I started to cry.
That was when I knew why I got PCD - because I was going to miss the hugs. I was going to miss the expression of our caring for each other. And that hurts so damn bad. For up to a week. And this time I was really messed up because I missed giving that one last hug to some of my friends. Its really not advisable to do 85 mph on 287 while crying so I had to get it together as I continued my drive home.
Then I heard a ding from my phone. When I stopped at a traffic light I saw that it was one of my dear friends who I missed giving that one last hug to - she didn't realize I had even left for home and was asking if I had eaten dinner yet. I cried some more. Then I told her how sorry I was that I missed her and how sad I was that I was so stupid to have missed her.
She said "No worries, we will see each other again' and she sent me a little heart emoji.
Basically, she hugged me.
Peace out people. 'Get in the pit and love someone'
