By: Katharine Star

            At the time I was working as an intern for the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA). The museum was to have a booth at the 2006 New York Comic Con, the very first NYCC. As a volunteer, I was slated to work the booth and promote the museum. It was to be my very first convention.

            I arrived at the Jacob Javits Convention Center at 8am for setup and from the beginning I felt a sense of awe. The grand convention hall was filled with life as booths, banners and displays were erected and exhibitors rushed about making final preparations. Some wore business attire, while others wore elaborate costumes. It was then I had my first inkling as to the magic that was to come.

            Most of the first day of the con was for members of the press only, but already the hall was crowded and bustling and filled with excitement. I passed out museum press materials and did my best to represent my employers.

            Then the real hustle began. The convention opened to the public, and the difference was certainly discernable. It were as though the convention center had been infused with enchantment as sci-fi, comic, movie and gaming enthusiasts suffused the space, bringing with them color and energy I had never before witnessed.

            As tempted as I was then to explore, I did, however, have a job to do, and so that day and the next I dutifully stayed with my group, manning the booth with the occasional break that allowed me what I knew was only a glimpse of what the con had to offer.

            Then came the third and final day of the convention. I was not slated to work that day, but I still possessed my exhibitor’s badge. I couldn’t pass up such an opportunity. I put on my t-shirt that says “Come to the Dark Side, we have cookies” and made my way uptown.

            By midday my head was spinning, and not in an unpleasant way. There was much to see and do, and plenty to buy. It was while walking those aisles that day that I procured my first geeky prize: a Master Replicas FX lightsaber, styled after Luke Skywalker’s.

            Shortly afterwards I attended the Saber Academy, a lightsaber show and fighting tutorial put on by the then still fledgling group New York Jedi. I was sitting in an audience of about a hundred people, when the group leader came up to the mic and said for everyone with an MR saber to light it up and raise it in the air. Everyone did but me: I had no batteries and so could not do so. The man on the stage noticed this and asked me why I wasn’t complying. I simply replied “No batteries!”

            His response? “There’s nothing more sad than a girl without batteries.”

            Much of the audience laughed. The younger members of the audience just looked puzzled. I found I was not embarrassed, but rather felt included. I later became a part of New York Jedi.

            That first experience spawned several to come. I have been to a number of conventions now, and that sense of inclusion has spread until I’ve created for myself the haven of a group of convention friends. It is my plan to attend NYCC 2008: I attended 2007 as well. Nothing has compared to the excitement and anticipation before a convention, nor the warmth and friendliness that greets one upon arrival. It is an experience I’d recommend to many: that first time I arrived at a convention in full costume was exhilarating and freeing, and the sense of camaraderie is wonderful. I’m happy to have had that first experience; it was the start of something truly enjoyable, the start of friendships that are truly superb, and the beginning of a new hobby that has brought me much delight.