The McCandless Project: Cosplay in Society

Earlier this week, I went school wearing part of a cosplay (cos·play: the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game, especially one from the Japanese genres of manga and anime) from the anime Attack on Titan to test how my peers would react. This cosplay included makeup, a strange jacket, and most notably: an orange-brown wig. This odd and different look awarded me with many different stares and remarks. Just a few of these remarks included: “Gasp! Your hair is red and orange!”, “Ooo! I love your hair!”, “I like your hair, and with that jacket, nice combo!”, “I like your jacket; are you cosplaying?”.

Most verbal responses proved to be overwhelmingly positive. Despite this, some stares I received in the hallways irked me. For the most part, I am used to cosplaying in public spaces. This tolerance has been built by attending conventions, going on bike rides, and visiting public spaces such as Kroger and Coffman Park in full cosplay. However, having people that see me everyday observing such a societally strange side of my life proved to be more nerve wracking than expected. I anticipated confused, disapproving looks, however I had not prepared myself for the self conscious-ness that I experienced. While I was not exactly “out of my comfort zone”, I was surrounded by people who had certain societal standards, and the way I was dressed may have pushed those standards. This realization made me strangely nervous around nearly everyone I passed.

I consider myself as someone who tries to not listen to society’s rules, I rely on what my common sense deems as a good or bad thing to do. If I see someone in public doing something I’m not used to, I try to understand it, ignore it, or just not make a big deal out of it. I strongly believe that people should be able to do what they love without having to worry about being judged by society.

"So I guess we are who we are for alot of reasons. And maybe we will never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them."

I chose this quote because it is from one of the best, most powerful, books on my shelf at the moment; The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky. While this novel could not considered "lengthy" by any stretch of the mind, it is choked full of meaningful quotes and  laced with themes of self discovery and recovery. This quote represents my beliefs because one thing I will always believe is that you can choose how to live your life, even if you can't choose what events have lead you to go down that path. No matter how bad or good things seem, you can change the outcome, even if you can't change the circumstances. If I lived every moment as my quote states, I think the my outlook would just always be very positive, and I would feel very in control of my life at any given point.

Run- Short Story

Zoe L,

Belden

Honors English I

8 October 2014

     

Run

"Hey, Winter!" I heard a voice call over to me, slightly softened by the cool wind.

      I looked back. At first, all I could see were light blue eyes piercing through the morning fog, then I saw that the image clearing around the seemingly floating eyes was a face, a familiar face.

   "Hi," I said awkwardly, not being able to remember her name. I hoped that my faked smile looked real.

    We both stood there, about ten feet away from each other. After a lifetime of waiting, the girl finally broke the silence.

    "It's Amber," She said, kind of happily.

It came back to me. It was Amber. I began shaking, my body flashed cold.

    My mind went blank with panic. I wanted to run, but I couldn't move. I thought back to when I was 13; when everything happened.

    I remember my mom screaming for me from the kitchen window, telling me to come inside. I didn't listen - I never listened.  

A man came up to me and ordered me into his car. I followed obediently, knowing that it would end up alright. He said that he was in the military or the secret service or something similar that sounded extremely important and provided a badge to each member. It was important.  It's true I didn't go home after that, but I wasn't kidnapped, I wasn't help against my

will. I wanted to be there with so many other people, everyone understood me. They all told me that I was effortlessly talented; gifted, unique. They assured me that I was needed.

At first, I thought they were kidding. They told me I had great potential towards being spy and that they had been watching me from afar. That part was admittedly creepy, and I knew it.

    After a long three years of vigourous training, I became a spy. I followed the orders that were given to me. Until my sister came into the program, that is. I didn't want her under the control of these people - they were harsh, she was weak. I found out after not too long that she was working with our main enemy. She had once told me that I had three choices - I could join her side and follow the team that would win this war, stay where I was and go down in flames, or exit the program completely. The flame in her eyes and outline of muscle in her arm made me realize that she was no longer my younger sister. She was no longer weak and helpless. She was no longer an ally.

    At first, I was determined to stay. When the offer was made, I demanded that that was what I would do. The people around me told me that I was needed, and I had to believe that. But the place was falling apart.

People were accused of being traitors - I eventually became one of those people. The people I worked for convinced themselves that I was the enemy. I soon realized that by attempting to stay in this organization, I was putting my life in danger. I ran away during the night, when even the war was postponed until morning.

As I ran, I had only one complication whilst attempting to escape from the war zone; my closest enemy, my little sister.. She had been stationed to watch the area of the woods around our campsite, and as I tried to get away, bullets flew towards me. Laughter rang

throughout the trees as my sister triumphantly skimmed my shoulder with a throwing knife. Despite these obstacles and the harsh realization that my baby sister was now a complete maniac and trying to murder me, I did not cease my efforts.

I continued to run without looking back until I found a small town that would be suitable to live in. I stayed there for a few years and nobody found me. Until now.

     

   I snapped back to present time and looked at the figure again. I whispered the only thing I could think of.

"You're my sister,"

   She stood there, nodding. I gathered all of the strength I could muster in my legs and ran. I ran to a new town across the country. Amber didn't follow me, to my knowledge, she didn't even try. I never found out whether or not it was a coincidence that Amber was there, in the town that had been my safe haven for so many years. Probably not. The important thing was that I was far away from my maniacal sister.

To this day I am still safe in this new town, for now.

Metacognitive Thinking

I changed a few things from the first draft of my essay to my last. One of the things I changed was my wording. In some places from the original draft, I saw that what I said may not have made sense to someone who had not read And Then There Were None. While this was one thing that I had to change, I think that the comments on my timed writing helped me the most. This is because I could see what I had done wrong, and fix it as I wrote and corrected my writing. I think that getting feedback on future writing will help me improve as a writer as time goes on, so that I can fix my mistakes. I would like to get better at writing supports into essays. Whether this be a quote or an idea pulled from a text, incorporating it into my writing is not one of my strongest suits. Overall, I was given the opportunity to fix many written mistakes in my And Then There Were None essay, and I still have much room for growth.