Just what is it about Conventions anyways?

Joe Flanigan
Originally uploaded by Khonsus

Seriously this question was actually posed to me by Misha Collins in the autograph line at a Supernatural convention. I've been wanting to answer it and the selection of this particular photo will now help me to provide a better answer than I gave him that day. :)

First for a little aside:

Seriously I made a decision when I first started this blog that there would be limited fandom-y stuff contained in it, but my favorite photo for the week of November 1-7 over at Flickr is this one. In my defense: lets be real here for a moment... How can I have a blog focused solely on my own personal life and not include a single picture from a convention? It would be...in bad taste I suppose? And just why is that? Well because conventions are a bigger part of my life than some even realize.

And now onto the answer (or an attempted answer maybe?) to the above posed question...

For starters I've been going to conventions since 1997. Yes that means I've been going to conventions for over ten years now. Most of those years I've attended more than one convention. Why did I start? Well for one I wanted to meet actors and actresses of my favorite shows. I wanted to hear their stories. I've always wanted to hear their stories. I would love simply just to sit down with one of them and ask them about their life and their life experiences, about their travels, about what led them on their path to becoming an actor/actress and just simply to talk to them one human being to another. I find people fascinating and their life stories even more fascinating. I LOVE hearing about other people's lives and think it would be neat to hear about some of theirs.

What other reason would I want to attend these conventions and so many at that? Because of the fans...the eons of fans who for one whole weekend can feel at ease among tons of like minded individuals. You would not believe the diversity of people that attend these things. The age ranges are from infant all the way to eighty years old and beyond. I kid you not...and the fans of these shows? Well they are a mix of people from all over the globe, all walks of life... Some people fly thousands of miles just to spend a weekend attending one of these things, and most I believe have the times of their lives.

The lure for so many? Well I think a big one is that we all have the interest in common. We're all fans and this is the ONE place that we can all merge, blend and be fans. Here at a convention you won't get gawked at like you're weird. You don't have to keep quiet about being a fan, or feel odd when you say you've attended conventions in the past. You can enjoy your show and squee over it, chat until you're blue in the face about it and not worry or feel awkward. You can spend hours chatting about favorite episodes and no one will get bored. You can chat incessantly about fan fiction and all or most know EXACTLY what you're talking about.

Another positive? You get to meet so many people from all over the world. Now tell me where in the world are you ever going to get that? They are all there for the same reason. You can meet up with long time friends, make new friends, squee to your heart's content excited about how you just finished your photo op with this person or that. You can openly express how it felt to meet this person or that. You can dress up in costumes you made or others have made and parade around the whole weekend in them if you'd like... You can be absorbed by fandom-y stuff and no one would look at you cross... There's just so much that I can't really explain. You almost have to experience it for yourself.

So why do I attend so many conventions and for so many different shows? Originally it was just to meet the actors and actresses. Now it's to meet up with old friends, make new ones, listen to other people's stories of how they met this person or that, travel and see a place I might never have seen otherwise.

I like to go to conventions because they are fun and though a lot of actors/actresses I've seen repeatedly most of them are so interesting that I want to see them again and again. It's almost like a reunion of sorts. You start recognizing other fans and they start to recognize you. Some of the actors/actresses even become familiar with some of the fans... It's like a big friendly meet up of people who haven't seen each other in a year and are all coming together for a weekend of fun and excitement.

So now that I've at least attempted to answer the above posed question onto the next: why out of all the photos uploaded between November 1 and 7 to Flickr did I choose this one?

Mainly because I LOVE the way Joe's holding his head and the expression on his face. To me it says so much in a simple gesture and that's what makes this photo so special to me. :)