Being A Military Family

When I was younger, my mom would rent out our basement room to single people she would work with in the military. I personally loved it because it meant that there were more people around I could harass into playing with me. However, I was always confused when I would hear my grandparents berate my mother on letting “those people” into our home. I remained confused, until I asked my mother what they meant, and why they were so angry. My mother described to me how “old fashioned” my grandparents were and how they didn’t believe in surrounding not only the family, but me in particular, with people who identified as ‘gay’. I sat quietly for a long time before my mother asked if I felt it mattered. I responded that I truly didn’t, and carried …show more content…
So, when I met someone with whom I felt I had a true connection with, I was ready to do just about anything to keep them in my life. We became inseparable, and ever when we weren’t together we would spend hours talking on the phone. I felt I had finally found someone with whom I could classify my best friend. Eventually, as we grew so did our interest. She came to me one day raving about something called cosplay. It was this hobby where you would make costumes and dress up as fictional characters and where them to these conventions. She was beyond excited to try, while I felt less than thrilled, and this brought the worry and fear that we would grow apart, and that wasn’t something I was willing to let …show more content…
So with this fear I would lose my best friend, I faked an equal amount of interest in a hobby I knew little of, and cared even less about. I managed to convince her for the next 2 years that I was as invested in this activity as she was. Then my family moved to a new province. It was hard leaving the first person I had truly considered my best friend, and I found, much to my surprise that continuing cosplay lessened the hurt I felt. The next few months I had a few thoughts beginning to surface about this hobby. I realized for the first time in years that I kind of actually liked cosplay. And this raised more questions, than it should have. Did I learn to like it through the simple act of repeating the process for years? Did I like it because my best friend had leaked some of her enthusiasm into it and I had unknowingly absorbed it? Or did I like it just because it reminded me of her? And to be completely honest, I never really found the answer to those questions. All I knew was that it made me happy, and I firmly believe in holding onto the things that make you happy. This hobby that many, and at one point even myself, think immature has actually lead me to grow more as a person than, I feel, anything else in my life has. The simple act of putting on a costume, and trying to put yourself in a characters mind frame