Too Old For All of My Interests

Ok so this post may be a bit word vomit-y, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a couple of days now, so I just need to get it out.

I recently finished reading the first two books of Ashley Poston’s Once Upon A Con series (Geekerella and The Princess and the Fangirl, respectively) and they really got me thinking. I have rarely, if ever, read a book where cosplay, cons and fandom are represented, they were excellent nerdy re-telling of some classic fairytales, but it was when I got to the acknowledgments that I felt a lump rising in my throat. Ashley Poston just gets it, I thought to myself as I read it. 

I often joke about how I am too old for all of my hobbies and interests, but after reading this I had a lightbulb moment. So freaking what if I’m what society would class as a full adult (I’m 32) I still love cosplay and Disney holidays and anime and being a general nerd. I also love red wine and writing and travel, yet I am judged for one set of interests and not the other. I don’t understand why, when people get to a certain age, they have to all of a sudden get more “grown up” interests like yoga and watching soaps (absolutely no disrespect to people who do like these things, they just aren’t for me at all) am I all of a sudden supposed to start being interested in crime novels because I’m no longer a young adult? 

There is already so much pressure on people to do what we are “supposed” to do in life (have kids, buy a house, get a car etc) that it genuinely baffles me that we aren’t allowed to still have fun once we start full-time work. And don’t even get me started on the judgement police, who look down on anyone who deigns to like something that they deem childish. I’m sick of hiding who I am and the things I like for fear of being judged, so I’m not going to anymore. Not that I really did anyway, but you get the drift.

So yeah, I just really miss comic con.

Nic

xx