This past weekend I was lucky enough to attend Formerly Wizard World Fan Expo Chicago. It was the first time I went 3 days in a row. My Terminator knees gave out a few times but, in the end, the magnificent pain, harassment from my wife and 2.5 year old for being MIA for the weekend was well worth it.
I’m not an old guy but I’m not a dumbshit 18-20-something-year-old who can prance through 3 days worth of conventions for a near total 10 miles. Nope. I’m just a dumbshit 30-something year old with shit knees that walked for 3 days for a near total of 10 miles.
Don’t get me wrong, I ain’t no bum. Hell, I’ve been running for 2 years now. Not from my problems but actually running. I’m prepping for a marathon. So walking shouldn’t be a big deal. Well, it was.
End of story.
Call my Mom.
But that’s the price of fandom. Going the three days was truly the best decision I could have made. My best friend and I attended tons of panels ranging from Kevin Smith to creative panels with Image Comics legends Cappulo and Silvestri.
So, with 3 days of panels, meet and greets, and diving into long boxes one might be asking what was my favorite moment? And it does have to be singular because having multiple favorite moments would corrupt the true meaning of a favorite moment.
This is my favorite moment:
You’re probably asking yourself “what in tarnation am I looking at!?”
What you’re looking at is the ebb and flow of the convention. This is the living embodiment of what a con is.
I can almost hear the buzzing of conversations. And I can almost feel the excitement of going through long boxes, the soft crinkle of plastic wrapped comics being thumbed through at a rapid pace. My best friend and I pulling out surprise comics that were not on our list. My best friend and I snickering at Quasar or freaking out at all the Ice Cream Man comic encounters – should we buy it? Nope. My stepson pulling out a Venom comic to purchase. My best friend and I are taking a knee and looking for that must have crappy random toy. Walking past Mr. Cigarette Comics, faint music in the distance, chill AC air reminding us that it’s summer time, looking up at the exposed ceiling, remembering our Wizard World days, looking back at my best friend and realizing that this is it, finally taking out my phone and capturing this magnificent memory.
Our daily lives are saturated with small wallet sized memories. Even when going to large events like this. You have your micro memories and your macro memories. And you have your micro memories inside your macro memories. It’s almost a science.
Sometimes those memories can get twisted, distorted, and recycled as something else. Even the essence of what that memory was is gone and eventually forgotten. This is why I took this photo. It captured the micro and the macro of a memory that will slowly get farther and farther away from me. I don’t want that to happen. Moments like these are too important for me.
In the end, when I look back at this picture, I’ll be able to remember the key details of the memory, and the fact that my knees were fucking hurting.
*bonus photo
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