Con Man

I will never forget the day I took this picture. It was truly a return to form. So imagine this: in the year 2020 Covid strikes and the world is now living under the mandates of a pandemic. We all remember how that went right? Social distancing and very limited contact in public places to lower the risk of exposure to the coronavirus.

This also meant that most of the big events that constituted mass amounts of people were temporarily banned or were done virtually for safety precautions. One of those many events that were my favorites is GalaxyCon, one of the many variations of the comic con convention. By 2022 the pandemic was at best 95% over, so many of the big events were able to get back in business. GalaxyCon in Raleigh was one of them and let me tell you something, when those doors opened for the first time in three years it felt like you were coming back to the best home away from home ever.

I took this picture that day to keep it as a great symbol for convention life that I love. All my life I’ve exemplified the stereotypical fan who you will catch at a convention like Comic Con. I’m a nerd who loves all things film, television, video games, comic book and music among other things. The first time I ever went to a convention was in 2019. My closest friends would go to cons yearly, but I never went with them because I was in college weekly while working, so I never really had the time.

By January 2019 I was finally getting a chance to slow up on college life because I was getting ready to graduate and I had just heard that Comic Con was coming to Greensboro, where I live. I knew I had to hit my friends up so we could all go together. Being the nerd I am I decided that I was gonna dress up in Cosplay. I decided to go as Marvel’s Black Panther because of how much I loved him. My friends also dressed up as Marvel characters including Thor and Killmonger.

When we first walked through the doors of that convention at the Marriott hotel in downtown Greensboro it was incredible like I had never seen before. I saw all of these cosplayers dressed up as my favorite characters from Marvel, Star Wars, Harry Potter and too many more to name. The best part about it was all of these people came from so many different walks of life and yet they were all just like me. Even though it was my first time going it felt like I was at home.

Everyone was accepting and embracing of each other with no judgement and no bias. We could be complete strangers at Comic Con who could spark up random conversation about geek culture and you would think we were best friends who knew each other our entire lives. Eventually my friends put me on to Galaxy Con which is basically a bigger and better version of Comic Con where not only the best cosplayers of social media and the local area come out, but also the biggest celebrities in the world of entertainment also come hang out with the fans.

GalaxyCon was a life changing experience when I went for the first time in the summer of 2022. I’ve went every year since that first time and Every time I go I meet a child icon I looked up to who gives me a thousand memories I’ll never forget. This photo I took is a symbol of the culture I love that not only made my childhood fun, but also inspired my work as a writer. I’m thankful to say I have plenty more of them and I look forward to a future where I’ll have even more.