fighting evil by moonlight at Animation celebration! (animation celebration part one)

I was very fortunate to attend Animation Celebration in Lewisville, Texas this weekend. Normally I just arrive and   search the isles looking for comics, toys. Not to mention, spending endless amounts of time waiting in autograph lines and panels and fawning over the hard work of the talented cosplayers I see. This weekend offered up an entirely new experience because I was fortunate to be on the other side of the convention as a volunteer.

the experience gave me an entirely new prospective on the super-secret workings behind the scenes. I was in charge of the green room one minute and filling my walker with snacks and beverages the next.  Today I felt like I ran a 5k over the weekend., every time someone needed something I happily got it for them, I mean how often do you get to assist amazing voice actors and comic book artists? As a con goer, I never really thought about the volunteers before but after this weekend I understand how a volunteer can make all the difference and make a very chaotic event run smoothly.  The troubleshooting staff was amazing and I feel as though I made some great new friends. So if you’ve ever volunteered at a con, thank you!

The highlight of my weekend was meeting Linda Valentine and Toby Proctor from Sailor moon.  When I met them,  felt like a twelve year old girl again and shared with them how the show had such a great impact on my life. I shared that when I was in middle school , Sailor moon was my gateway to make friends with the girls that worked with me on the school paper. Anyone who knows me in real life knows how introverted and shy I was in those days. I would always race home to watch it in the afternoons and then talk about it while typing up articles to be published. Although my time on the school newspaper didn’t last long, I credit show with helping me make the friendships that came out of it.

Linda Ballantyne was one of the most down to earth celebrities I’ve ever met. After  I  paid for my personal autographs (she was only charging 10 dollars can you believe it?) I told her that I was going to get her to sign something for the suicide prevention walk that my campus is hosting (see last post for more information) when I went to pay her for the things for the walk she refused to take my money and gave me the prints.  I cannot express how amazed I was by her generosity and hope to ruse them to raise money and awareness for our cause. It really touched me that she took the time to sign stuff for our school.  It always amazing when your favorite superheroes transition to real life role models. 

In part two of this post, I will be doing a write up on my favorite cosplayers at the con and talking about my "convention haul" so check back for that!

a bit of an update

I just wanted to take some time to give anyone that could be reading this a little update on my life. If you have read my first ever post you might have been privy to some juicy tidbits about me. I believe I mentioned that I am currently going to school to become a children's librarian because it is my dream to infect unsuspecting childerbeasts with a love of reading. I remember being a little girl and going to the library with my father. I remember him pushing me in my wheelchair through the big glass doors and entering the rows of books that comprised their children's section. It was like entering a magical land where I could be anything or anyone I wanted to be, I just had to open a book. I remember nightly readings that would transport me to the Hundred Acre woods or Fern and Wilbur's farm. 

As I grew older, I would spend more and more time in the library. I would befriend every librarian to the point that they began setting aside every R.L. Stine, King, or Rice book that came in. After spending some time in college and years of contemplating how I would leave my own special mark on the world, I decided I wanted to return the favor and pay it forward. I decided I wanted to become a librarian and reach out to others.

Last week, I became a volunteer for my local library. I am proud to say that I am now a volunteer that teaches low income or kids that are struggling with school better reading skills. the program I volunteer for is from ranges from Pre-k to second grade. I will say that upon volunteering for this program. there was a tiny shred of doubt if I *really* could work with kids. Last Thursday proved without a doubt that this is a field I am meant to be in. The little girl I work with went from reading one book on the first visit to enthusiastically reading six! I really enjoy seeing the sparkle in a kid's eye when you compliment them for finally mastering gerunds when they struggled with it the week before.  I'm really excited to impact her learning and am excitedly making flash cards from lists of second and first grade words. I meet with her once a week for an hour and we work on reading, pronunciation, and sentence structure.


In addition to my volunteer work at the library I've also been keeping busy organizing a walk to raise money for a suicide prevention walk. as a teen I spent several years battling depression so this walk is very close to my heart. I want to raise awareness and help others from experiencing such a dark mental place. If you are interested in learning just how I plan to help raise money, or make a donation please click the link below.

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention!


There are also a lot of other things I've been up to. I had the pleasure of attending the Indiana Jones exhibit in Fort Worth last weekend and I am spending this weekend helping out friends at Louisville's Animation celebration. I should be updating tomorrow with plenty of exciting things including convention photos, stories and maybe even segments with my favorite local cosplayers. So stay tuned at the same bat time, on the same bat channel!