NerdCon was beautiful. It had echoes of festival culture, with a sort of automatic acceptance but somehow alloyed and strengthened from the sobriety and active, adaptive empathy. It was kind of cult-like. If people in official-lanyards handed out Kool-Aid, I honestly wouldn’t have hesitated.

But regardless, it’s a community built on love and acceptance and the brothers are very humble and forgiving and regiving; honestly some of best people. And the nice thing is that they share/have been role models for those qualities with the Nerdfighter population. Often John is quoting as saying that the videos get better as you scroll down. It’s a clever nod to the average quality of the videos, and to the engagement level of the audience.

It was great that literally everyone was your friend. We naturally understood each other’s moral values, immediately building a level of connection. Also, everyone is a huge Potterhead and those are my favorite types of people. It still had the awkwardness of introducing yourself, or showing a facet of your personality that might be unique/different, but often it was shown. There was little shame and less shaming, mostly kind support and unbridled enthusiasm. We were curious and kind and accepting.

I hope no one there ever felt the smallest need to hide any part of themselves. That was truthfully an all-inclusive stay.

Lots of representation from LGBQTA+, young and old, all types of relationships, artists, musicians, writers, athletes. They had sign translators for all the speeches, and we thanked them at the end by applauding in sign language (hands over head, waving, fingers sprayed out; think jazz hands), plenty of different types of service dogs for all sorts of things. They ran like 6 charity sponsors, 3 charity events, and 5 charity related activities (6 if you consider it charity to fuel the dreams of League 1 soccer).

It was amazingly diverse but just not that many non-white people. We actually discussed this while cutting up fabric for a community-woven rug that would be sold for charity online. This event was called Making a Rug but they truly missed an opportunity to call it Cutting a Rug. A girl from Germany and I spent a little time wondering about it. [Looking back, it could have been because I’m Asian myself something I didn’t think about until writing this. But in such an accepting environment, it was in no way disrespectful, if indeed that was even the reason] We think that more active representation from people of color using opportunities like Hank’s paternity leave would be a positive first step. That would draw a new audience, because when your leaders/figureheads share traits with POC, they are more willing to include themselves. But we agreed that the community would be very accepting of the additions and would totally strengthen the conversations we have.

The group was, understandably, filled with creatives of all types; musicians, writers, videographers, etc. etc. In the panels that focused on the creative process and the journey to making art, I found such inspiration and hope in the shared collective difficulties. I know I suck at writing. It’s sometimes hard. It’s not always fun. And occasionally I hate what comes out. That wasn’t a revelation or anything, most people echoed very similar struggles. Most heartening was everyone who spoke said the same issues plagued them and it was almost inherent to the process, at every level of success, peers or panelists. It made me think that perhaps I am on the right path; practice and collection.

Anyway, I’m kind of fond of the thing I’m doing. I’m trying to consistently make time for it. I want to put in effort and build good habits. I hope you’re trying to do the same for whatever or whomever is important to you. I believe in you as I believe in myself; one step at a time.

P.S. I’m still terrible at taking photos, but I did take one and I stole one from friends I made at drinking. Because I like nerdfighters but I love getting beer with nerdfighters. DFTBA y’all!