Whoops, guess who remembered they have a website to share whatever’s happening so far?
In a (somewhat) last minute decision, I decided to attend Fanime, San Jose’s anime convention that takes place on Memorial Day weekend annually. A friend had a spare bed in their hotel room, and I had missed my friends. With the help of another friend’s flight credit, I pulled the trigger and bought my flight to San Jose.
Before this year, my first and only time attending was back in 2018. In making the decision to go, I was also able to support my friend selling her wares in the vendor hall. I would be put to use!
Prior to the convention weekend, I found that numerous people in my life were going through it. Some were dealing with personal issues that affected their mental and physical well being. Others were exhausted from the weight of the news cycle, current politics, and so forth. People are longing with nostalgia for peace, opportunity, growth, whimsy, so on and so forth.
At my desk, I yearned to give. And while I didn’t have the funds nor the desire to provide trinkets, I instead decided on a card.
Here’s the front:
And here’s the back:
With this card was a QR code linking to this website, where people can submit their alias and a message if desired.
With my hope, I wanted to have this card passed along from one awesome person to another awesome person, reminding them that the person that gifted this card thought they were a wonderful being.
The autograph aspect was the second hope, in that I wanted to memorialize people in a way that would remain. And you know what they say; the internet is forever.
Throughout the 4 days of the convention, these cards were handed off to friends and strangers. And while I didn’t hit my goal of 80 cards, I was happy with the responses I received.
Here’s what I learned from running this experiment:
- People do remember. Not saying it’s a bad or scary thing. When it comes to growth, human-to-human connection can leave a life long impact that can inspire people.
- Parkcon was more than feet juice and debauchery. This renegade gathering of congoers at the park next-door had brought music, food, games, and socializing to Fanime. There was people letting loose for a moment and to feel like themselves.
- I still have hope that people are kind-hearted. From reading these submissions, we’re all just hoping for each others’ wellbeing.
This is Lina 