Harry Dresden (Matthew), Molly Carpenter (me), and Michael Carpenter (my dad) from The Dresden Files

That sounds like the setup for a joke, but it really was my weekend. I went with CG founder Matthew Bowman to the fourth annual AwesomeCon in Washington, D.C. I had never been to a major convention before, so the entire thing was a new experience for me. I don’t like crowds of any sort, and I’m a massive introvert, so I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy myself. It turns out that last weekend was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.

Marc Hempel, an artist for Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics

I met an insane amount of people, and while most of them were in passing, I got to talk to a lot of them. Everyone was so different, but we were all in the same place to enjoy our geeky pursuits. There were artists and authors and vendors and cosplayers and celebrities and other people, all fans of something geeky and cool. I honestly couldn’t say if there was more diversity in the fandoms portrayed by cosplayers or on people’s t-shirts. I got to network with other cosplayers, take pictures with fans of the characters I was portraying, talk with some of my favorite authors and artists, and meet and take a picture with John Barrowman!

I didn’t go to many panels (just parts of a few of Matthew’s) because there was so much to see. There were a lot of incredible artists selling prints of their work or doing custom sketches of characters or people’s costumes. The D.C. Stunt Coalition had an area set up where they were teaching stunt fighting workshops on Saturday and Sunday and giving private lessons all three days. The Royal Manticoran Navy and similar fan groups were recruiting new members, and there was a room with the Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator, a cooperative sci-fi game where players take different roles on a single ship to destroy enemies in space combat and complete various goals.

The girl who interviewed me. She was so sweet!

Although I think my favorite part was getting to talk to some of the kids that were there. I saved my best cosplay for the final day, and I couldn’t even guess the amount of people that stopped me for pictures. I was blown away by the amount of kids that I met. They were all really adorable, and most of them were wearing cool costumes. Just observing them smiling when they met their favorite characters made my day, and I loved that I was able to be a part of that. One girl I met was going around interviewing cosplayers for her class project on why people should cosplay!

Overall, this was one of the best weekends I’ve ever experienced. I can’t wait for next year’s AwesomeCon or any of the other conventions I’m going to try to attend. And if anyone is interested in seeing more pictures from the weekend, check out my Facebook page Redwing Cosplay or on Instagram @redwing0109.