The Memoirs (of a new but not so new cosplayer.)
By Luis Rodriguez aka.DopeassDeadpool
It all began on a beautiful spring afternoon about 3 years ago, after watching a few Marvel movies in a row, I decided that it was best to fight crime in beautiful Spandex. Sorry, started this with the wrong origin story. I have been a huge comic book fan for 20 years of my life and have been an avid fanatic of the Deadpool series and the Spider-verse. One day during spring I got together with a few friends and we decided to cosplay the characters from the X-Men /X-Force. Everyone suggested that I should be Deadpool by unanimous decision. At that point in my life, I had never done any cosplaying because I was terribly shy, stiff and self conscious.
My friends convinced me to consider wearing a red romper, saved some money for a few weeks and bought an economically made zentai styled suit from a website (which I still wear proudly with holes and all, that's so Deadpool). The next thing was to piece the accessories, My girlfriend went online and saw the Deadpool belt at XCoser.com and bought my very first cosplay accessory which made the costume come together beautifully ( I sound like an infomercial, but not a good one, I sound shakey weighty). The rest of the accessories were made with household items and the kids toys cause of my budget and it worked out!
My very first time putting this cheeks in spandex was on Halloween, I played the part well and got a really awesome feeling from the reactions. That night it was decided to open some twitter/ instagram accounts (dopeassdeadpool ) to break free from my shyness and be able to communicate with Cosplayers that were well established. Made a ton of friends and the community loves how easily it is for me to impersonate Deadpool's ways due to my “nerding out comic book time”. To make some people smile was a great reward. With time, it was a boost of confidence and it got me out of depression due to personal traumatic events that no longer matter, so cosplay started to become a grand slam of therapy in my life!!
Fast forward to the next year over. I attended my very first Con, Megacon in Orlando, Fl. Unfortunately, none of my friends came because of adulting (haha) and some because they bought a different day to attend. However, not discouraged, I went to the convention center dressed in the same outfit that I've been wearing for nearly two years only at home or to freak my parents out. At first, I felt the social anxiety kick in and it felt like I had 6 shots of coffee flowing through my veins, when a Spidey cosplayer ran up to me and gave me a HUGE hug that cracked my spine. I thought it was a bit weird, yet I kept an open mind. In the first few hours, I learned that the Cosplay Community is just an extremely huge dysfunctional but loving family of characters from all kinds of lifestyles. After that, it was on like Donkey Kong!!! It felt so addicting to walk around the Con Center meeting the coolest people I have ever met right next to the characters that I grew up watching. I have never felt so accepted in any community before becoming a cosplayer. I got to photobomb at least 50 people that day including professional cosplayers in their panels as they were posing for media outlet show cases, and all were approved with loving arms. That very day, I decided to become a cosplayer for the long term. It helped me become a better public speaker, it made me shine in confidence, and it gave me something to spend my time in a rewarding way. It was magnificent, the feeling you get when your fears dissipate in minutes as you're appraised for something you worked hard for to bring into life from an idea. An idea that a shy guy had when he was sitting on a couch binge watching Marvel movies with some friends and wondering if wearing red spandex was the right thing to do, and it was.
I moved to a new state in the last month (June 2017). Anyone that moves to a new state knows how hard it is to get adjusted and make new friends. Fortunately for me, I did not have that problem. The cosplay community already welcomed me in their state and made me feel that no matter where I go, I have a group that I belong to. Now days , I still get compliments on my outfit and what makes the outfit look like it is a quality is the belt. The little belt that made difference in this butterfly effect of words. Thanks XCoser!
