Day 1077: Am I The Interesting One?

We all know that I work really hard to keep my Ego in check. As a music major, and especially as a saxophone player, it's pretty easy for things to get a little over the top. But lately I've been trying to figure something out, and the more I think about it, the weirder it gets.

It all started when we were writing biographies for our classmates for Literary Theory and Writing. Instead of writing a biography for ourselves, especially when we already have an introduction that does almost the same thing, we wrote them for other people, which led to asking a bunch of questions and so on and so forth. Anyway, as I talked with my partner about my background and my goals and such, I realized that maybe, just maybe, I'm kind of interesting.

I don't really consider myself to be an interesting person. In fact, I figure I'm relatively ordinary. I grew up in a small town, I look forward to my coffee every morning, and spend most of my late nights at my desk working (although I would give anything for a Netflix binge and some pizza, especially pleasing if I can eat said pizza without my lactose intolerance getting in the way). As the saying goes, I put my pants on one leg at a time, just like anyone else.

But is my "ordinary" actually something the rest of the world considers extraordinary? Gosh, now I'm really starting to sound egotistical.

And then I had a discussion with one of my friends about people we know from high school, and as other went on about this friend doing this and that, I realized that I have very few friends who seem to be off doing really awesome things. But we all have friends like that on Facebook. And that's when it hit me: am I  the one off doing really awesome things? After all, in the matter of one year I've continued with a third year of straight blogging, started a roughly successful YouTube channel, met the creators of The Dust Storm, talked with Colin O'Donoghue on the phone, met my favorite saxophone player (again), went to Disney World twice and Disneyland once, met a bunch of my favorite YouTubers, and managed to balance it all alongside a busy college schedule. Of course, the fact that I plan on moving to a different state so I can pursue my dream of working for Disney doesn't hurt the whole "I'm interesting" thing either, but boy does it seem weird to be calling myself interesting.

After all, when everything boils down, I'm just another average Colin O'Donoghue and Harrison Ford fangirl who loves Star Wars and everything Disney and would give anything for a giant plate of homemade spaghetti and meatballs.

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on December 22).

Day 1049: Fandom Life

As a member of the internet and social media, I'm always seeing posts that note "what a time to be alive," and it's occurred to me recently that now, right now, is a wonderful time to be alive, at least in regards to the live of being a fan. Suddenly it's become kind of "cool" to be a part of a fandom, whether it be Star Wars, Disney, a television show, or something else entirely. In fact, it's gotten to the point where I think most of us wonder what people without a fandom do with their freetime.

Honestly, picking a fandom to be a part of isn't even that hard, unless you're trying to stay away from all negativity. There's plenty of that on the internet wherever you go, and while some fandoms are worse than others, every one of them has a few rotten eggs. But seriously, all you have to do to become a part of a fandom is like something, and usually that means becoming absolutely obsessed with something.

It starts out relatively simple, like when I began watching Star Wars. You watch the movie with the smallest amount of interest and enjoyment, and then suddenly something clicks. For me, it was the moment a certain space scoundrel came on screen and I realized that it was indeed Indiana Jones. Boy, I'd been missing out on an entire childhood of Harrison Ford and I had no idea.

And so, you begin to watch (and rewatch) the movie over and over again. With a TV show you end up buying a season pass on iTunes so you can watch the film immediately the next day and every day after that until another episode appears. Maybe you start DisneyBounding your favorite characters, and tweeting the cast and crew. You join internet groups, maybe you create a fan page (or a giant blog dedicated to your fandom), and eventually things just start to get a bit out of control. 

You attend a fan convention, maybe something as big as Comic Con or D23 Expo, or something smaller that simply embodies your fandom. And when you can't go to the conventions because you spent too much money on fan merchandise, you stalk the internet waiting for any possible news. And speaking of fan merchandise, things just sort of start to pop up in your room, especially after people figure out that a gift featuring your favorite character would work perfectly for an occasion. 

And before you know what happened, you're a part of a fandom. You've made friends and learned everything you possibly can about the show or movie: all the head-cannons and real plotlines and accepted truths. You spend the majority of your day thinking about the fandom, and drawings in the columns of your notebooks relate your love of the scoundrel that stole your heart.  

Previously, at this point you'd try to hide your love of the fandom. Kept it completely under wraps for fear of someone finding out you actually have a shrine to a character in your bedroom. But that's a world that exists no more. Now you can be proud of your fandom and the happiness it brings you! 

What fandoms are you a part of!?! Let me know in the comments! 

Have a magical day! 

(Note: This blog post was written on December 30).

Day 568: Welcome Aboard Mate

Yes, I do LOVE Once Upon A Time, and Yes, I AM trying to get everyone I know to watch it because I want it to continue for a very long time (or at least for like...Season 5...but let's get through Season 4 first). So of course I'm trying to catch one of my close friends up on the entire series. It started several months ago, when we began at the beginning of the show and slowly made our way through seasons one and two. Back then she swore she would never like Captain Hook or ship CaptainSwan like I do, but it seems those days are over.

Now we're over halfway through Season 3, and she's been going crazy. I regularly check the #CaptainSwan tag on Instagram, and I generally know most of the spoilers for the upcomming season, although I'm trying to be better about it this time (it's not working). All else aside, I'm a huge CS shipper. No doubt about it.

What I didn't expect was for a front row seat for the "This is what Lizzie looks like when freaking out" show.

My friends are always teasing me about how much I am addicted to this show, but we've previously discussed why that is. About how in reality this show is like my constant and I need it to survive and it gives me something to look forward to each and every week and so on and so forth. And when we watched the season finale, my friends debating videoing me just so I could see what I look like when I freak out.

Turns out we don't need that at all, because my friend is going to show me anyways, only it won't be her pretending to be me. No, she's freaking out all on her own. Megan and I, both of whom are caught up on the show and have been patiently waiting for Season 4 for the past however many days, are kind of evil though. When she wants to watch Once we spend as much time as possible doing random crap just to make the "hiatus" for her longer, which is generally only a day or two. But boy is it going to be a good time when we get to the end of Season 3 and she still has to wait at least a little bit of the hiatus that's left until Season 4.

My biggest accomplishment here though is the simple fact that I got one of my friends super addicted to Once Upon a Time, just like I am. And it really is entertaining to watch her flail around because she ships CaptainSwan so much. It's a new experience for me since I'm generally the one doing the flailing and freaking out. Some of it is real, most of it is acting, but one thing is for sure: it's seriously entertaining.

Have a magical day!

(This blog post was written on July 23, 2014).