Sassy Says Thank You, Fandom.
Fandom. A lot of times, there is tons of fandom drama. People who think they are the Fandom, or people who are “celebrities” in the fandom produce drama, but I want to take some time to talk about the good fandom has done to my life.
My first real fandom was Buffy. I didn’t realize I was in a fandom, but looking back it was. I read the fanfic, I watched every episode and was in a fan club, I didn’t realize or understand the meaning of fandom then.
Harry Potter came into my life by sheer accident. My mother brought it home from the library one day while I was sick during my junior year of High School. I really didn’t want to read it at first, thinking it was a kid’s book, and the cover made it look kind of stupid. I gave in though, and after the first couple of chapters I was hooked. I went out and got Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban as soon as I could. I was obsessed. I was Harry Potter for Halloween at work, and I collected anything Harry Potter I saw.
I attended my first convention ever in 2006, a Harry Potter Symposium called Lumos 2006. It was held here in Las Vegas where I live. I purchased robes offline, and even went as far as joining a group on MySpace for people going to Lumos. I met a great group of online friends that were putting together a party the night before the con to kick things off. I was asked to play bouncer, and ended up checking ID’s and welcoming people to the party. Magic happened over that weekend, as I made some amazing friends.
About a week after Lumos I received a comment on LiveJournal from a girl who said she lived in Vegas and they were starting a club called the Las Vegas Harry Potter Fandom, or LVHPF. She asked me to come to one of the meeting, and I was able too, and I am so glad I did. I met my Roommate and one of my best friends, who is also a staff member of MyVampFiction, (Cedward) that day. I also met some great people, who without them I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.
Three Harry Potter conventions later, and I have been to three weddings from people I met from these conventions, two of them I was a groomsman for. (well, one Groomsman and one Bridesman, I suppose.)
Harry Potter is why I read Twilight. A friend I met at Lumos posted on his Twitter how he was reading it, and I figured I would pick it up and give it a chance. From there, I branched out into so much other things. I gave been to ComicCon twice now to pursue different fandom opportunities.
The LVHPF changed its name about a year ago, because as we always will have Harry Potter in our hearts, we are so much more than a Harry Potter group. We are a family, and we have different fandoms we all enjoy. We are now the Las Vegas Black Hat Society, a sort of play on Red Hatter’s. We are an amazing group, and it’s all because of a book series.
Without fandom, I wouldn’t be writing this blog. I wouldn’t have met the –amazing- girls that work their butts off to make this website run smoothly. Without fandom they never would have come together to create this place for us. Sometimes I just feel how freaking amazing it is that we all are together because of a group of specific things that we all enjoy.
Fandom can be a pain in the ass, it can be drama, and it can be frustrating. But any way you look at it, you can’t deny that it has the power to bring people together.
If there is one thing I thank fandom for, it’s the friendships. I will never find a better group of people to have in my life, than the friendships I made because of fandoms.
And that’s what Sassy Says.
OH SASSY! This post brough caused the happy kind of wetness to spring forth from my ducts and I wish you were here so I could hug you right NAO.
It’s true that with the fandomania comes the unwanted drama but that makes the true friendships that arise so much more special. Sometimes I am amazed what’s come from reading a book/watching a tv series or movie and the longer I stick around this crazy place called the fandom, the more incredible people (like you) I meet.
Love this post, love this fandom and love Sassy!
I totally agree! It was because of the fandom and Twitter that I got the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people, including you! Twilight might be a joke to a lot of people, but it has changed my life in a big way because of the fandom. I am so glad that I went and saw that movie and decided to read that book. Life is totally better now with the fandom, even if it does bring drama. Love ya Sassy!
Sassy – I could not agree with you more. Every time the drama in the fandom gets me down, I just think of all of the amazing friends I’ve made over the last few years. Without Twilight, I would never have met you or Char, taken a ride on the Poopway Express, or toured Las Vegas in the Sassymobile. In just a short time together, we have created happy memories that will last a lifetime. I can say without a doubt that this fandom has brought me more happiness than I could have ever imagined possible.