There’s something special about connecting with someone who is passionate about the same thing you love. For me, it’s games and anime, and honestly anything kinda nerdy or creative. But I created this space specifically because I saw a need. When I look on social media, YouTube and in these games I love, and these anime I obsess over, I don’t always see me.
When I discovered gaming growing up I fell in love with it. But being a part of a community where “gaming” unless it related to sports, fighting, or racing games, there were very few people I could geek out with. Some of them didn’t understand that it was okay to like basketball and Legend of Zelda. So in order to fit in and to not draw too much attention to myself I didn’t really talk about my love for games unless I was around a certain group of people. You see this is about middle school aged, and everyone knows this is where you REALLY start paying attention to who you hang out with and what you say you like. One wrong move and it’s the end of your social life. And let’s be honest kids can be mean.
In high school I was able to express myself just a “little” bit more. And honestly most of my nerdiness came from being in band. But I played drums so I was in the “cool” section. But I want to highlight this one girl who went to my middle school and my high school, let’s call her Bee. See Bee had gone through some hard times in her schooling. She lost her mom and she didn’t have a whole lot of friends. And she was awkward. Awkward to the point where a lot of us (I’m including myself in this because I definitely felt the same way at the time) didn’t really know how to interact with her.
Well speed forward a few years and we’re all in college. I see her appear on my handy-dandy Facebook app and I get curious to see what she’s up to so I head to her page. And all on her page were cool pictures of her art, anime drawings, or her cosplaying. Now high school me would have said “Wow that’s a little weird” but college me, who had just discovered a love of anime and probably just got finished binge watching a whole season of One Piece, got it. I understood where she was coming from, and a part of me was sad that it took that long to see it. Bee is a phenomenal artist and if we ever reconnect I’ll be sure to tell her. But I got it…I saw her for who she was. An anime-loving, cosplay dressing artist. And while we may not have the same interest in everything, I can guarantee you if we were to talk today, we have probably seen some of the same anime and could geek out over our favorite characters, or our favorite episodes.
What I’m trying to say is that there is waaaay more that connects us, than separates us. I just want to show this idea through my love of games and my love of anime. I want to make a cool space for people who look like me can come and geek out over the same stuff. Think about the fact the #BlackHogwarts is a thing. No one probably would have guessed so many of us would enjoy something like that, but we do. It’s cool to see the connections in each other. I just wanna help spotlight it.
Peace.
