Bigger Than I Really Am
It was a normal summer afternoon when my mom called me into her bedroom. I had no ideas what to do for my 15th birthday on July 16th. I figured I would just see a movie, just like everyone normally does. I recently picked up an interest in Marvel movies and characters and my mom had actually taken notice. “Why don’t you go to this Wizard World thing? That Stan Lee guy you talk about is going to be there, and some Walking Dead characters.” Stan Lee is one of the original people who worked with Marvel comics. She brought up the Walking Dead characters for my brother, who’s a fan of them. Wizard World is a traveling convention that goes to several major cities. This particular one is called Wizard World Chicago, even though the convention center is in Rosemont. …show more content…
The concept sounded interesting, it was a good place to get exposed to more of the Marvel culture and it sounded fun to dress-up as a character. “How much are the tickets?” I got on the bed to see her laptop screen that read the prices. The most expensive single day ticket was for Saturday; $60, but if you include additional fees (I’m assuming this means taxes) it would be $66.67. It’s out of our price range for an event I’m not even accustomed to, and there is the risk of me having a bad time. “Well Thursday is only $46.07, but you’d have to take a day off of school.” The first day of the convention, thursday, would take place on August 8th, 2013. It’s still after my birthday, but it would count as a present at that price. My mom didn’t care if I took one day off of school (I believe we had Friday off the next day anyways) but my friends who I wanted to go with me may not have parents who are ok with it. After calling them up, Nikki and Brianna seemed to be down with it but my friend Mikaela’s mom didn’t feel ok with her going into the city with only my 17-year-old brother escorting us. Her mom eventually let her attend other conventions with us in the future. My brother didn’t really seem too excited about attending, but it gave him the opportunity to purchase merchandise from his favorite video games and TV shows. My friends and I had major hype over the newest Avengers film, therefore we decided to base our convention costumes on our favorite characters’ designs. However, due to the fact that we look like girls we figured it would be interesting to do female versions of these characters. My friend Brianna had decided to do a female version of Thor, Nikki decided on Captain America, and I myself had decided on doing a very unappreciated member of the Avengers: Hawkeye. And so, I had spent my summer looking over his character designs, especially his classic one. I found the purple straps on blue much more appealing, colorful, and easy than his newest outfit. My mom and I looked for things while shopping; going to Goodwill probably would have been the better choice but she insisted against it. We grabbed a blue dress from Old Navy, and a mask, elastic, and several purple bandanas from the craft store. My mom did most of the work constructing the outfit. “Don’t we need to sew these straps on?” I had asked her. His costume design has purple straps that slightly resemble suspenders running down his front and back. “We can just iron them on.” She insisted on doing this whole project without any sewing. While she cut rectangles in the suspenders I sat outside on the patio step and painted the quiver that would hold my arrows. Nikki had given me an old mail tube to use for it, and it was the perfect size. Midst painting I watched the dogs sniff around and press their wet noses on my knees, wondering what exactly I was up to. A drop of purple paint fell onto the patio cement that still lies there today, no matter how much we try to wash it away. I jumped between painting layers of purple on my mask and quiver while waiting for the other to dry as the smell of cheap paint tickled my nose.
It was a normal summer afternoon when my mom called me into her bedroom. I had no ideas what to do for my 15th birthday on July 16th. I figured I would just see a movie, just like everyone normally does. I recently picked up an interest in Marvel movies and characters and my mom had actually taken notice. “Why don’t you go to this Wizard World thing? That Stan Lee guy you talk about is going to be there, and some Walking Dead characters.” Stan Lee is one of the original people who worked with Marvel comics. She brought up the Walking Dead characters for my brother, who’s a fan of them. Wizard World is a traveling convention that goes to several major cities. This particular one is called Wizard World Chicago, even though the convention center is in Rosemont. …show more content…
The concept sounded interesting, it was a good place to get exposed to more of the Marvel culture and it sounded fun to dress-up as a character. “How much are the tickets?” I got on the bed to see her laptop screen that read the prices. The most expensive single day ticket was for Saturday; $60, but if you include additional fees (I’m assuming this means taxes) it would be $66.67. It’s out of our price range for an event I’m not even accustomed to, and there is the risk of me having a bad time. “Well Thursday is only $46.07, but you’d have to take a day off of school.” The first day of the convention, thursday, would take place on August 8th, 2013. It’s still after my birthday, but it would count as a present at that price. My mom didn’t care if I took one day off of school (I believe we had Friday off the next day anyways) but my friends who I wanted to go with me may not have parents who are ok with it. After calling them up, Nikki and Brianna seemed to be down with it but my friend Mikaela’s mom didn’t feel ok with her going into the city with only my 17-year-old brother escorting us. Her mom eventually let her attend other conventions with us in the future. My brother didn’t really seem too excited about attending, but it gave him the opportunity to purchase merchandise from his favorite video games and TV shows. My friends and I had major hype over the newest Avengers film, therefore we decided to base our convention costumes on our favorite characters’ designs. However, due to the fact that we look like girls we figured it would be interesting to do female versions of these characters. My friend Brianna had decided to do a female version of Thor, Nikki decided on Captain America, and I myself had decided on doing a very unappreciated member of the Avengers: Hawkeye. And so, I had spent my summer looking over his character designs, especially his classic one. I found the purple straps on blue much more appealing, colorful, and easy than his newest outfit. My mom and I looked for things while shopping; going to Goodwill probably would have been the better choice but she insisted against it. We grabbed a blue dress from Old Navy, and a mask, elastic, and several purple bandanas from the craft store. My mom did most of the work constructing the outfit. “Don’t we need to sew these straps on?” I had asked her. His costume design has purple straps that slightly resemble suspenders running down his front and back. “We can just iron them on.” She insisted on doing this whole project without any sewing. While she cut rectangles in the suspenders I sat outside on the patio step and painted the quiver that would hold my arrows. Nikki had given me an old mail tube to use for it, and it was the perfect size. Midst painting I watched the dogs sniff around and press their wet noses on my knees, wondering what exactly I was up to. A drop of purple paint fell onto the patio cement that still lies there today, no matter how much we try to wash it away. I jumped between painting layers of purple on my mask and quiver while waiting for the other to dry as the smell of cheap paint tickled my nose.