New Passion: Post LeakyCon Withdrawls

Happy Tuesday everybody! I hope you've all had fabulous weekends. It was very hot in Portland, but I wore my cosplay regardless. As it turns out, it is equally hot in Seattle. We usually don't get this kind of weather until later. I'm not complaining!

So after discussing with the other two people that came to Portland with me, we shared our top 3 learned lessons of the "Con". We surprisingly had very similar answers, so I will paraphrase:

1. It is a genuinely wonderful feeling to be accepted and have your views respected to a point of having your walls come down in a public place and truly be yourself.

2. You are not the only "freak" in this world. Everybody has a little craziness in them, and it's okay to let it out from time to time and have fun.

3. It's great to know that there are people and organizations out there that really care about what happens to America as a society and culture. People who see things going on in this world that they don't like and decide to do something about it.

I know that I've beat the dead horse too many times on the topic of being yourself already, but I feel compelled to share one more thing about it. First of all, I am an extrovert. I get energy from being around others. I don't generally have problems with having my voice heard, or starting conversations. Social interaction comes naturally to me. I talk to people everywhere I go. I'm telling you this because I travelled to Portland with 2 very introverted people. The people I left LeakyCon with were different people than I initially showed up with.

Sometimes, we just need to see someone else "acting a fool" to make us okay with doing it ourselves. Someone (I'm sorry I can't remember a name!) on one of the panels we sat in on told this story: There was once a field of people just sitting and doing nothing. Then one person decided to get up and start dancing. Everyone stared at this person, began talking about him, making fun of him. Then, one other person for whatever reason got up and joined him. Soon there was a field of dancing people. This is called a movement. Nothing worthwhile ever happens any other way. First someone takes it upon them-self to lead, but the bravest person in that field was not the person who started the movement, but the second person who joined. With all the ridicule flying around, it would be easy to sit back and make fun with the rest, but it takes courage to stand up and say, "I like what he's doing, and I'm going to do it to".

That was a very long way of saying that I am so proud of my 2 friends for being okay with "acting a fool" with me. It also helped that just about every line we ended up in had someone who interacted with us and shared some of our likes.

So to all the introverts out there, sometimes observation is a very powerful thing. You sometimes sit back and watch silently while us extroverts wonder why you don't engage with us. In my experience, you say more profound things, you make more calculated decisions, and you are genuine. Don't be upset that you're not social like us extroverts, be proud that you play a part in big movements. When we unite, we change the world.

Sorry, I can't post any pictures, I'm on my IPad and it won't let me. I will come back later when I am at home and add some.