Megacon 2019

The Megacon 2019 Squad/ Jenni, Rob, Myself, Cameron, Taylor

 

 Here as I sat down after a long day at Megacon, I took some time to sit down at the front of the convention watching people leave as the convention came to a close. I sat down with much contemplate, remember and reflect. Serious thinking over a convention?? Well that's me, always in thought about not just the specifics of the day but overall experience and of all the years that I have come to this con. This convention was my first and always remembered as "THE" convention for me. Yes it would be a dream to finally attend the real king of all cons, "San Diego Comic Con," but for now and so far in my life its Megacon. This year I decided to attend for just one day. Previous years I've always had daily cosplay plans, flexibility to get off work, and this grand excitement to vacation my time at Megacon. But this year I had none of those; I had no plans to cosplay(since I'm just about burnt out of it), not much of any flexibility to take extra days off from work, and there was no excitement, but just a joy to see a few friends and that's it. And so it was yesterday and today. I have had and made so many memories with Megacon and I sat here first appreciating that Orlando has a great yearly convention, and I hoped that I would continue to attend no matter if I cosplayed or not, went with friends or alone, whether I went for one day or all three(or 4), that as a tradition I would consistently attend and continue my record for going every year and not missing one.

Last night I specifically told the squad that I wouldn't be cosplaying, They told me that they are doing our old Fullmetal Alchemist cosplay group and of course it meant something to them in their own way but especially for me as well. It was that anime and theme a few years back that I first ran into them and became such good friends thereafter. So...the thing was I'm pretty much done with Cosplaying or at least not in the mood to do so, but since this had a special meaning to all of us, I went home last night and got my King Bradley cosplay ready and set to go. And so I went this morning and surprised the group. Taylor said he had a feeling that I was suited up, just from all the hints from messaging each other from this morning when trying to meet up.

 At first I did get a good little adrenaline, excitement, and the memory of how much fun it was to cosplay, but it didn't take long, I mean probably...2 hrs in? Not even? I started to become uncomfortable, exhausted, agitated, angry from people bumping into me and almost wrecking my already old cosplay. Everything became prematurely wrapped up for me. So the moment everyone decided to eat, I told them that I was done, and I headed back to my car and changed out.

When I returned I felt soooo free.

Felt so relieved to have shed out the extra weight of cosplaying. This right here was the way it was for me when I first started attending conventions. When I got back in, the group pretty much vanished and split up. As I tried to contact them, the phone reception at cons were always so horrendous and difficult to find reception. So I took the time to walk around and...SHOP. But I was hungry so I got myself some lunch and instead of meeting up with the squad and eating near them, I went ahead and found a corner and ate by myself.

 There was a time that this was pretty much the norm eating alone at cons, but obviously it was quite lonely at the time. But today as I ate alone I also remembered how peaceful it was when eating by myself. I mean I never had problems eating with the squad, but for alil change and eating away from the crowds of people it was a very relaxing moment for me.
After lunch I started my way back to vendors room and as I ran around buying a few things here and a few things there I ran into an old friend, "JP." Stationed at his usual spot, "The Artist's Alley." Caught up for a few minutes and my boy gifted me an awesome art piece of his. For free! I insisted that I would pay, cause I mean he is there for business but of course he insisted that I dont. Couple times in the past I asked him to do a couple pieces for me of characters that I was cosplaying on that year at Megacon, and he always delivered. FOR FREE! What a guy JP.

After my time with him, I continued on to see the rest of all the artists tables and of course as something to be expected a person will run into or spot someone that they know, whether its something you like or don't like, and there she was at a distance, Ariel. Someone I didn't want to see, someone I just had no care to run into. Had to diverge, detour out of there and continue with my business. During this time I got a hold of Taylor a few times telling me their status and worked my to rendezvous with them. Of course as I hiked my way towards them, I did some more shopping and met some local celebrities, Russ the main radio host of "Monsters In The Morning" and Jeff Kaufmen that does "Nerdy News" segments in the show.

So finally I got to them. Took a few pictures, AND I actually got some time to speak with Samantha, Taylor's sister. The last time I saw her was when I first met them, and wasn't able to speak with her at all at the time and since then. It was probably one of the great highlights today. It was an absolute honor to speak and chat for alil bit as well as speaking with Rob, whom I've never met other than through a computer screen playing FF14. Anyways after spending alil time with them, I had to say farewell to Rob and Samantha since they had to go home. So we ended our day
splitting up.Taylor, Jenni, and Cam went back to their hotel room to change and await for me to pick them and finish our day with dinner. But before leaving the building I thought I'd take one last crack around the vendors room as well as trying to meet my favorite voice actor of one of my favorite games; Rob Wiethoff of The Red Dead Redemption series. And what do I know, I got to meet the legend. After that I left and on my way out I noticed the traffic of people leaving, so since I just took the time to sit outside, relax and reflect. After some time sitting out, Taylor contacted me wondering why I was MIA, so I picked up my things and said farewell to Megacon. Picked the remaining squad up and went to Bahama Breeze for dinner. The food as it always is at that restaurant was awesome, drinks were so refreshing, especially after a long day of walking and heat exhaustion. After some time at dinner, we set off to hook up with Steven, Savannah, and Caitlyn for miniature golf. At this point I was done. I just couldn't go any further for the day with them. I was tired today, so we took a few more pics and said our goodbyes.

My overall experience at Megacon 2019? It was alright. It was good till it lasted. Was it the way I remembered it? Yes...and no. I might just be getting too old for these kinds of things, and just easily gas out with things like this. Hopefully things may change in the future, but for now I think ill be attending conventions casually without extra weight.