• In this awkwardly kind world of ours, there are quite a few interesting people. While at an anime convention in Minneapolis, those select people happened to become very special friends. While going to this convention of mine, I decided to be a part of the staff which made everything very interesting from the start. As soon as I arrived at the doors to that magnificent hotel in Bloomington, I saw many bright and wondrous colors. It filled me with so much happiness at feeling like I was finally in my true home that it made me nervous.
    The building was huge. I'd never dreamed a single hotel could make me, the girl who always knew the way to get to and from places, lost. I was lost so many times. It was strange really, to think that a hotel that doesn't look big could actually be big enough it felt like I was running through a small town. And that was where I met Lulu. Lulu was another staff member that was the head of the department I was in. The cosplay department. As soon as we saw each other there were joyful hugs and laughter. Can you imagine? Two complete strangers hugging before they even said hello. It was amazing. I honestly felt like I couldn't have been more at home than with this random, giant group of strangers. After the hugs and the greetings she brought me upstairs where she showed me where all of the guests would be participating in the convention. First there were the small shops set up in the main hall. Rooms upon rooms filled with the most glorious anime plush, candy, cat ears, dog ears, figures, wallscrolls, and manga! Everything was brightly lit and everyone seemed cheerful to sell their products.
    Along the way I discovered what the “panel” rooms were for. Lulu had told me of four rooms that she said were where the panels were being held. All I could think was “panels?”. Panels happened to be an hour or so long that consisted of anime groupies making a skit or talking about certain types of anime. I ended up going to three out of the thirty that were there. One panel was my favorite. It was a truth or dare panel for a show called Ouran High School Host Club. It was hilarious. There was running around the room and screams from us fangirls! There were unexpected blushes and cute romances.. To be honest I didn't think all of the girls in the room would stay conscious because our noses were bleeding profusely. At that panel, I saw that I wasn't alone anymore. I wasn't the only one who dreamed of fantasy couples. I wasn't the only one who had spontaneous nosebleed moments and who wanted my anime prince to take me off to some distant land in Hokkaido.
    Throughout the first day of the convention, I took many pictures of people as was my job. I was the photographer who, at the end of the day had to edit thousands of photos. Out of those thousands I found that only a couple hundred were good and it lessened as I went on. Taking so many peoples photos in fake leather combat boots that have no cushion at the bottom can make your feet hurt. By the end of the first day I was hardly walking and had to ice my feet when I got home. However, during the day I met many more people. With our department we had several guys that made me laugh. I met the second photographer after an hour of my being there. He was nice and we ended up being friends, but at first all I could think was “competition”. Even though he had to have been twenty four and we didn't know much about each other I was slightly jealous. I had thought I was going to be the only photographer there and so I didn't really try to talk to him until the first photo shoot.
    His name was Matt. Matt did not know anything about anime. All he had done that was anime related was watch Pokemon and do a tiny bit of research on the subject of anime to prepare for this event. It made me laugh and for a moment, greedy with power of knowledge, I felt superior to this newbie. But in the end I got to know him and made sure to tell him about upcoming events in the future, hoping we could work together again.
    Taking the pictures was a hit right off the bat. Right away, since I felt so in tune with everyone there, I was able to communicate with people in a way that they'd want to communicate with. If I knew what the anime was that said person was cosplaying, I would call it out. They would turn and we would hug all before I asked to have a picture of them. It's a quick and easy process, but unlike most quick and easy processes I had so much fun. A few of those people ended up being my friends in the end.
    On day two, Saturday, I stayed there from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. That was the night of the masquerade. Now I know what your thinking, “oh a dance!” but the thing is.. It wasn't a dance. It was a photo shoot. Matt and I were going to be there as Lulu really wanted a lot of pictures. Matt ended up doing video instead of pictures because she also wanted a video and frankly, I didn't have a camera with video nor did I know how to film it. During the masquerade, I began to panic. Fear gripped my gut as I tried to focus my camera through the acts and poses. My camera wasn't focusing and I couldn't figure out why. I tried to take a few photos but they turned out horrible. A few acts later my father came in and relief washed over me. My dad is a photographer himself and it was his camera that he had given me. He told me what was wrong and that the focus had been reset. Happy now that I could take the pictures, I sat back down and did my job.
    By the third day, I was tired and sad because it was ending. The convention that made me feel so special just two days before, was leaving me now. I said sad goodbyes to friends and made promises to meet up again some time. And that I did. I met Lulu and a boy at a Japanese festival about two months after. A few weeks before that, the boy and I saw each other at a picnic for a convention coming in October. I was again happy – being able to see the people I care about and had gotten so close to in those three days.
    A few weeks after the convention, I uploaded my pictures taken to Facebook. Hundreds of comments have been posted and, from an anime convention in June, I’m still getting comments. Over those comments I made a few more friends, one is a girl named Chloe. She's younger than me but also a lot of fun. Not exactly like all of the other fairly annoying eighth graders I meet on a daily bases. Her and I are both cosplayers from a Japanese anime group called “Vocaloid”. Out of all of the cosplayers at the convention, “Vocaloid” was the biggest group to gather for a photo shoot.
    All in all there are still so many very interesting people I would wish to meet again. I'd like to be able to spend time with everyone I met at the convention while not everyone was mentioned in this essay. There are just so many amazing, wonderful, kind, entertaining, random, and just plain interesting people out there.