Just try to take away my junk food when I’m hungry, I dare you! The struggle is real.
Join us every Monday for a new, original Some Nerd Girl webcomic!
Alex is our resident Webcomic creator. He grew up in Puerto Rico, but didn’t reach true Nerdom until he came state side when he was in middle school. He’s been drawing since he was five, but has only started posting Webcomics in the past year. You can check out his amazing and original work at tapastic.com/gomezalexj.
I admire those who can boldly walk up to a random person, introduce themselves, and within ten minutes have a new friend; what is easy for them can take me ten days, if not weeks, to do as an introvert with mild social anxiety. As an introvert, I am naturally quiet, but with social anxiety added into the mix, it can be a completely different story. Crowds, strangers, and new social situations can make me feel constantly on edge. I can get extremely skittish in tightly packed crowds, and an occasional near panic attack is not unheard of in such situations. Yet I – the girl who has actively avoided taking a Speech course throughout her entire college career thus far – absolutely love attending Dragon Con. This year specifically has provided the chance to truly break me out of my shell, and I owe it to a few close friends and 70K+ con attendees.
Surprisingly, this year was not my first time at Dragon Con. That honor goes to 2014. My first ever time at such a large convention actually turned out to be a wonderful one thanks to the Dragon Con veterans who took me under their wing. They were able to prepare me for what to expect (lines, and cosplays, and geeks, oh my!) and acted as my guides over the four day experience. Their presence helped keep me calm in the hustle and bustle, and they acted as social buffers for any interactions I was involved in. My anxiety still played a part in the trip but because of them, I never felt overwhelmed. Upon returning home from the trip, I knew I had to return for 2015.
However, life is funny and not everything goes as planned, so I went into this year’s convention with more than a little hesitation. After all, everything leading up to the convention weekend seemed to go wrong. First, our attempt to book with the Hyatt failed, solidifying Passkey’s infamous reputation. This resulted in a very frantic reservation to the Marriott… a well-known party hub, particularly at night.
Oh dear, my social anxiety squeaked. This won’t be good.
Second, a few close friends had to give their regretful cancellations in the final hours before the trip due to understandable life events. A bummer for sure in any situation, but this left my social and makeshift stranger buffer much smaller than last year. With my safety net greatly reduced, I would be forced to leave my comfort zone. In turn, I was presented with a unique but frightening opportunity.
Instead of concentrating on the negatives, I decided to take this as a challenge to branch out a bit in order to overcome some of my social anxiety. But how would I go about making this an adventure?
During Dragon Con ‘14 I had been surrounded by very lovely cosplays but had been entirely too shy and/or intimidated to ask anyone for a photograph of their hard work. Not only was the simple fact of asking itself terrifying, I was afraid of inconveniencing people or being judged for asking a stranger for a photo, so I missed out on many beautiful photographs I regret not taking.
This year I decided I would make a change. I did not want my anxiety to interfere with my con experience anymore. Friday morning I gave myself one personal goal: I would find a single cosplay I enjoyed, walk up to the individual, and request a photo. Sounds simple enough, right? For most people it is – they can it to do without a second thought. For me, it would be a monumental step forward.
A hilarious early morning Milk fed Criminal Masterminds panel left me feeling pumped up and ready to take on the world.
As luck would have it, on my way to my next scheduled panel I passed by a fantastic version of the Tenth Doctor and Madame de Pompadour from Doctor Who. With a deep breath to gather up the remaining pluckiness inspired by the panel, I marched (read: timidly walked) up to them to request a photograph. Much to my delight, they were happy to oblige. I snapped a quick picture before my nerves vibrated me out of existence, thanked them, and walked away beaming.
This couple did not realize their small but highly positive interaction left a big impact on the rest of my weekend. Our brief encounter had me feeling empowered. I had set out to do something and done it; I had not let my anxiety win. I was proud of myself! Thanks in no tiny part to them, I was able to get over my initial shyness, and as the weekend continued, each time I approached another cosplayer became easier. An unintentional side effect of accomplishing this small feat? It led to me feeling overall more relaxed in the geek hordes. Who knew such a seemingly inconsequential ordeal could lead to something more?
Most importantly, all of this would help when Saturday night rolled around, the night we traditionally set aside to explore the parties.
I had been sharing various Snapchats of events with the people who could not attend this year. One of those friends suggested I use this chance to do a Dragon Con themed scavenger hunt. She would send me subjects that went from assorted “easy” themes (Marvel character, Nintendo character, gender bend), to moderate themes (“fandom you don’t know – bonus for asking what fandom it was from”), to what would be personally hard for me (“walking up to someone and asking them to dance with them”).
Frankly, it sounded like a blast so I was instantly game for it.
The scavenger hunt turned out to be a great way to interact with people at the parties. Every new item I would be given gave me a new reason to weave in and out of the mass of people in my search to mark the item off my checklist, and the hunt itself served as the perfect, fun ice breaker. By the end of the night, I was confidently introducing myself to people, a nearly unheard of thing for me. The very last task – dance with a random person – was even successfully marked off the scavenger list. I danced terribly, but I danced with pride.
Every year brings about a different experience, and for me, Dragon Con ’15 turned into an adventure in self-discovery. Who knew I could happily go out of my way to speak to utter strangers – let alone dance with one? Definitely not the girl from ’14! This year inspired me to test my boundaries, leading me to feel more comfortable in my own skin as I grew a little more confident with each new accomplishment. The pride I had from those little triumphs has spilled over into my real life, too. I find myself a little less edgy in crowds, and although being around new people is still nowhere near pleasant for me, I feel I can manage the situation better.
With ’15 wrapped up, the prep work for Dragon Con ’16 has already started. Tickets have already been purchased, the hotel has been reserved, and the wait for the guest list has begun. The only thing left to do is decide on a new personal goal.
You know, I have never cosplayed before…
Heather is a bookworm with a varied Goodreads, although if you are looking for reviews in the romance genre, your princess is in another castle. She’s a passionate console gamer who is diving headfirst back into comics after a long hiatus. She once met Patrick Stewart and played it cool; she met Babs Tarr and fangirled an embarrassing amount. You can follow her on Twitter @MissHWilliamson, where she has a habit of live tweeting (particularly The Walking Dead).
Hello SNG readers! We are VERY excited that, after just a couple months of being up and running, we are steadily approaching 10,000 hits!! We hope to continue to keep up the good work and consistently provide solid, original and interesting pieces!
Anywhoo – back to the important part – FREE STUFF! We’d like to celebrate our 10,000th hit by doing a giveaway. How does it work? I’m glad you asked!
Simply CLICK HERE and enter your name and email address. When the site reaches 10,000 hits, we’ll randomly draw names to award prizes! Here’s the breakdown:
1st:
2nd and 3rd:
Eve is the founder of Some Nerd Girl and the author of urban fantasy novel Children of the Fallen. She has been writing since the age of 13 and has been flying her nerd flag for the past 16 years. You can visit her website at www.somenerdgirl.com and look up her works of fiction on Amazon.
‘The Little-Known Underbelly of Con’ is part of a multi-post series where the writers of Some Nerd Girl share their convention stories – whether they be good, bad, or ugly!
In the wake of one of the biggest east-coast conventions – DragonCon – wrapping up, Some Nerd Girl put out a call for convention stories. Partially to help assuage the post-con depression for those who attended, but mostly to keep up the experience-sharing that SNG loves so much!
One of our responders’ experiences stood out as the lesser-known perspective of the self-described ‘underbelly’ of the Con. There are many reasons people are attracted to DragonCon – we heard about a lot of them in Melody’s post last month – but many of those reasons hold no allure for our respondent.
Intrigued, we asked our wishes-to-remain-anonymous-responder a few questions to learn more about the alternative DragonCon experience. Read on for their answers!
Read responsibly: adult topics ahead!
How long have you been going to DragonCon?
The first DragonCon I attended was in 1999 so this past con will have been my 16th consecutive DragonCon. There’s a few other conventions I’ve been attending for the past 13 years as well but none of them even hold a candle to DragonCon.
What do you look forward to the most at Con?
Really just the chance to get together with all my friends in one place. A lot of us have moved to different cities and states so I see the con more as a family reunion than anything else. We almost always throw a room party. Years ago it was open door. If you could find it, you were invited but with how quickly parties tend to break fire codes these days it’s now invite only.
The things that draw most people to the con hold very little importance to me. While I love Star Trek to death, I don’t really care that Patrick Stewart is giving a panel, I care that there’s some guy who had way too much to drink handing out all the stolen plaques that labeled what floor you were on in the stairwells. It’s all the little bizarre moments that only happen at con that really keep me going.
Do you keep the same group of usual suspects?
Yes and no. My core group of people I attend con with consists of about thirteen people. About seven years ago that group consisted of about thirty. When I hit my adult years I found that a lot of my friends were causing nothing but problems in my life and I burned a great deal of bridges.
What is the most unusual thing you’ve seen or done at Con?
That’s really difficult to say. If I had to pick a single event I’d have to say it was a BDSM room party I somehow found myself in when I was sixteen years old. Against one of the hotel room walls were some women dressed in fake leather gimp suits with some of their breasts exposed. They were all suspended from the wall by leather handcuffs and ankle cuffs. If you donated a bit of money to the party host he would let you put on a latex glove and allow you to grope them for a set period of time. Apparently there was also some sort “premium package” but I had no plans of sticking around.
What is the riskiest thing you’ve done at Con?
Despite the circles I find myself in I’m generally a very tame and laid back person. After high school I tried my best to start staying on the right side of the law. Personally the riskiest thing I did was probably just going to the convention underage and unsupervised in the first place. There were plenty of times in my teenage years when middle aged men would try to get me into bed. After the first time that happened I never went to a stranger’s room party alone, but by the time I was seventeen my circle of con friends was large enough that it wasn’t an issue. Any hour of any day of the con I knew of at least one room with people I knew and something going on.
As for people I know however, they have done some incredibly stupid things. From absinthe parties on the roof of the Marriott to gathering every homeless person they could find and inviting them to room parties they didn’t like. Like I said earlier, I’ve had to cut some terrible people out of my life.
Have you ever gotten in trouble with security or the cops? If so, what happened?
No. Like I mentioned I’m very tame in comparison to most of the cons party scene. It used to be very difficult to even get in trouble with the police if you had a badge. Several years ago a couple was having sex right on the stairs of the Marriott and an Atlanta Officer just gave them a warning.
Have you ever had issues with other members of the Con?
Who hasn’t honestly? Everyone has their con drama from year to year, mine is just usually far more extreme. The worst was at a very small anime convention when my friends and I were informed someone was trying to get a friend of ours into bed when she was so drunk she could barely speak. Within minutes we had a group of twenty people ready to drag him out into the streets of Atlanta by a broken arm.
Is there anything that ever scared you?
The only thing that outright scared me was the one time I did anything but drink at the con. A friend of mine gave me a very mild hallucinogen but when it comes to me and drugs I have a very low tolerance. If I took a Tylenol someone could probably take my leg off with a hacksaw and I wouldn’t notice until I tried to stand up. When the drug finally kicked in I was on one of the highest floors of the Marriott and I quickly learned that my fear of heights was greater than my fear of police. So after thirty minutes clinging to a guard rail for dear life a friend of mine convinced me to get into an elevator and close my eyes, we got to the bottom floor and I managed to walk by two Atlanta officers without having a panic attack.
There’s also a good many things that don’t necessarily outright scare me every year but bring a great deal of uneasiness. Primarily when I happen to be in the immediate area of large amounts of drugs being traded and sold.
There’s also the issue of some of Atlanta’s homeless. During most hours of the con there’s absolutely nothing to be worried about as long as you stick close to host hotels but even those areas become dangerous late at night. A friend of mine got mugged and beaten in broad daylight walking back to our room from the dealers room. Some guy sent him to the hospital over $8 worth of bargain bin comics.
What wouldn’t you do again, but don’t regret?
Two things. Both con games a friend of mine and I used to play. Our first game was “Random Bandit”, the goal was to steal as many worthless things from room parties as we could and whoever had the most at the end of con won. A lot of rooms ended up with missing towels, light bulbs, hotel shampoos, bibles, etc.
The second we called “Party Conga” one of us would hold up an object above our heads that people could see from a distance in a crowd, then we would walk through all the lobbies and atriums around 2 AM shouting “Follow (name of object) to find the party”. Once we had a sufficiently large group of people (usually 30-50) we’d either find a spot to sit down and drink if we had any liquor, or in most cases just ditch them at some remote part of a hotel. One year we somehow trapped about 25 people in a business conference room at the top of the Hyatt.
What are some things people don’t know about that go on at the Con?
So many things but it basically boils down to sex and drugs. It doesn’t matter what your drug of choice is. At con someone is selling it and if you know who to ask it isn’t hard to find. A guy I used to know would generally show up to the con with a brick of weed and no money in his pocket on Thursday nights and by Friday night he’d have a badge and a hotel room paid in full.
And then there’s the orgies. Dear god are there a lot of orgies at con. In the weeks leading up to it some lesser known websites explode with people organizing them. I can’t count how many I’ve walked in on in my younger years just looking for room parties.
Con also happens to be a very busy time of year for escorts in Atlanta from what I’ve heard. Even the strip clubs and local bars try to siphon off the convention crowd. If you head to any of these places this time of year you’ll see more slave Leia’s and Harley Quinn’s than you would see in the Marriott.
Any advice for those who might want to part from the mainstream part of the Con?
Bring plenty of friends. Unless you are a party, you’re not getting invited to one. Speaking of friends, don’t be without them after 2 AM especially if you’re wandering the smoking areas. The Marriott steps in particular have homeless people outnumber con-goers late at night. And while you’re at it get in on the action quick. The party scene at DragonCon is slowly starting to become a thing of the past. Just this year the Atlanta police were basically trying to start a curfew at some of the hotels. It might have been part of an investigation, it might have been a request by the hotels, I can’t be sure.
Today’s guest-contributor has requested to remain anonymous – a sacred internet right that we shall honor wholeheartedly.
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