In the last few years, I've been able to attend three separate fan conventions and recently a showing of Rainbow Rocks…and even after all that it still mystifies me whenever I encounter a fellow fan of anything in person.

Take just a few weeks ago when I attended a one-day comic con with a friend. While there I saw Daleks, Weeping Angels, Xenomorphs, a six-foot plush dragon, a ludicrous number of Power Rangers and hair in just about every color of the known rainbow (literally in some cases) and no one batted an eye. Sure, heads turned but it was either to point out to their friends the awesome costumes or get their picture taken with them. It felt like I had stepped into a whole other world, where it was suddenly “cool” to like the things that caused me no end of ridicule throughout Middle school right up until High school. That doesn't even begin to describe the attendees.

According to the media of old, the geeky or nerdy stereotype consists of a lanky, physically unfit, possibly even a tad overweight white male, who are all poster children for social awkwardness. And while I sure there were a few in attendance who fit that description to a tee (I was there after all), I also saw people who lured that stereotype into a back alley and mercilessly beat it with a lead pipe. I saw parents with their kids, an entire family of Storm Troopers, I saw males and females of just about every body type either dressed up or having the times of their lives and I saw more than one guy who looked like he could easily snap you in half and not break a sweat…wearing a shirt either depicted a cute anime character or a technicolor equine with a rainbow mane.

Then there was Rainbow Rocks. My worst fear was that I was going to be surrounded on all sides by little kids, all asking their mommies or daddies why the strange man was watching the pony movie. Imagine my surprise when the first thing I see upon walking into my local theatre was a group of woman roughly my age, three of which were cosplaying as Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy respectively, followed by at least two other groups of older males already waiting for the movie to start, conversing between themselves about their favourite episodes or the fandom old question of “Who is best pony?”

I've met fans aplenty through the internet, but talking to someone who likes a show or game though a computer screen and meeting them face to face are still too completely different things and I doubt I will ever get rid of that little voice in the back of my head that goes “You can’t go out in public like that! People will point and laugh!”