COMICS CULTURE SHRAPNEL from CBEM 356
Sometimes I wonder if its all worth it. Do I really need this stress? Right now, I have no idea how to get from the bus station to the hotel. I have no idea whether I should take my backpack or use the overnight bag. I have no idea what shirt I should wear, and if I should catch some sleep on the bus.
Today I bought snacks for the con, copied some flyers, and soon I will venture out to buy toiletries and a steno pad. I don't want to be the stereotypical unwashed fanboy/girl. I need the pad so I can earn my press pass by taking notes. Traveling with me will also be books to be read, stuff to be given out to people, and I don't even want to think about coming back.
So like I said, is it worth it? To spend three days in another state, in a hotel room with people I don't know too well. To spend so much money, between travel and hotel and food and simply stuff. To come home tired Sunday night, with little energy for work or homework the next day.
Well, hells yes. I keep coming back because I like it. I like to be among my own kind. The many, the proud, the geeky. There will be people in costume and people spending way too much money on t-shirts and CDs. There will be people who like to heckle movies and people who overanalyze. There will be people who've been doing this their whole lives and there will be plenty of newbies.
Sometimes I feel like an old Dork Tower strip, where Matt complains he'll need a hobby just to relax from all his hobbies. The dork life is like that, so much to do and worry about with so little time. But we stay buried inside the obsession, dug down so deep, happy in our interests and that esoteric knowledge.
Tomorrow I will be in Baltimore. And I will have fun, or die trying. And this time I have the experience to enjoy it even more (perhaps that's why I'm so stressed out now) and next week I will have a convention report for you. And new stuff. And the e-mail addresses of new colleagues. And then it will all be worth it.