Growing up, my favorite holiday was always Halloween. Not because of the candy (although that was always a plus) but because it offered me the chance to dress up in a costume.
I’m not sure why costumes had such an appeal to me as a child. Thinking back, I remember how much fun I had dressing up and how much I always looked forward to costumes involving make-up. Whenever I got to use my mom’s eye shadow or lipstick (not lip gloss, but real adult lipstick :o), I was so excited!
I also remember looking forward to seeing other costumes. Walking through the neighborhood and seeing so many other kids dressed up in costumes was such a surreal experience. I loved seeing all of the costumes – store-bought, homemade, and a mix of both.
But most of all, I think costumes gave me a chance to pretend I was someone else. As an introverted girl with low self-esteem, becoming someone else was like a dream come true, even if it was only for a couple of hours on one day each year. Even when I wasn’t dressed up, I would spend most of my time daydreaming I was a character from my favorite book, TV show, or movie at the time.
Now that I’m an adult, not much has changed. I’m still introverted with low self-esteem (although there have been slight improvements in both). So ever since I learned about Cosplay so many years ago, I’ve dreamed of trying it out for myself. But being introverted, I didn’t want to do it by myself and I was too shy to ask anyone else.
That’s why I feel so lucky to be married to someone who loves costuming as much as me (maybe even more so!). Of course, marrying MrGryphon led me to move from the East Coast – where there are conventions aplenty – to the Midwest – where conventions aren’t so common. We still managed to find opportunities to dress up, attending the local Zombie Walk and nearby Renaissance Fairs every year, but there was still something missing.
So when we learned of SiouxperCon – a convention in our very own hometown – we were ecstatic!
We spent months planning and creating our BioShock Big Daddy and Little Sister costumes, and we were both really happy with the results of our efforts. But we were also very nervous. Neither of us had attended a convention before, so we weren’t sure what to expect.
SiouxperCon blew us away!
Everybody seemed to enjoy our costumes, and we were overwhelmed by the photo requests. I just want to say thanks to everyone who requested a photo or just offered a quick compliment. Your praise made all of our efforts worth it!
Despite it being our first time cosplaying, we were bumped up to Master Class in the cosplay contest, and ended up being awarded Best in Show. Thanks to all the judges, you guys are awesome!
Overall, I had such a great time participating in the cosplay contest, meeting new people, attending panels, and checking out the vendors and artists. In fact, the weekend seemed to go by too fast! I’m already counting the days until the next SiouxperCon!
Click here to read about MrGryphon’s First Cosplay experience
