#mmc2023

My very first convention ever was MMC 2001 and there I made my very first convention friendship bc the other person was cosplaying Wolfwood and I was one of the few people who reconized said cosplay and we became basicly instant friends bc we were both obsessed with Trigun and finally had someone to talk. We exchanged contacts and later telephone numbers and we talked _so much_ for hours and send each other ripped animes on burned CDs via postal services every time one of us got something new, sleepovers full of way to grindy JRPGs - like... for years. And looking back, I'm so thankfull for this expirience and friendship I found back then bc now I very much aware that this was incredible luck that the first person I ever meet on a convention was this wonderful sweet person, that made my first convention magicial and sparked so much joy for this whole cosplay-fandom-convention-thing and I came back again and again. Like... I could have meet just the wrong person while being way to young and just someone who was just shitty. My first convention could have been gone wrong so easily. But it didn't. I meet my friend. And now, coming back 22 years later, wearing the Meryl cosplay I couldn't do back then bc I didn't know how to make anything and you couldn't buy anything (and again, meeting very sweet people bc of this stupid (affectionate) space western manga that has a new renaissance) makes me feel that something came full circle. And I'm very goey inside about it. I lost contact with my friend a decade ago but Sari, I hope you are doing amazing and still spark joy in peoples life, like you did in mine, whereever you are now. I still think about you.