Narrative

Narrative essay

I didn’t realize how important convention security guards really are, I always thought that they were just a bunch of assholes who made people follow unnecessary and ridiculous rules all the time. Well I was wrong, they are actually some of the most important people at the con.

The last weekend of January is always my favorite, it is the weekend of Ohayocon. Ohayocon is an anime/pop culture convention in Columbus; it averages about 15,000 people a year, making it one of the biggest anime conventions in the Midwest. I had decided to volunteer in security because I would get a free t shirt, badge and entrance to next years con.

Driving up 23 into north high street, I became very excited. Ohayocon was finally here, and this year I am volunteering! After parking next to North Market on Vine street, I jammed to a few of my favorite anime themes/remixes then excitedly ran into the Greater Columbus convention center. As soon as I walked into the convention I was  surrounded by people in all manners of dress, bright colors, costumes, vendors, and signs. I saw someone dressed as Kirito from SAO, someone dressed as Sephiroth and Cloud from the Final Fantasy series, as well as a lot more My Little Pony Cosplays than usual. Being the huge geek that I am, I grabbed my badge that I had ordered 8 months prior and began to take pictures. I made sure to get a 16 gigabyte SD card this year, so I could take thousands of pictures, and another one to record panels!  I pulled out my color coded schedule, and checked the times and locations of all the panels and events I was planning on attending.

I attended 4 panels, ate lunch in my car, and visited the Dealer’s Room (where I got a totally awesome Chocobo scarf), I headed over to the security desk to start my volunteer shift. I approached the desk, and was handed a shirt and badge from a woman in a Moogle hat at the desk, I picked up my walkie talkie from one of the convention center guards, and was informed on which channel contacts who, and the button only for emergencies.  I found my name on the bottom of the shift list, and found out that I was actually supposed to patrol around the rave that night, but first I had to supervise the line for one of the Hasbro panels and watch the Dealer’s Room.

So I sped over to the panel in room a3, I got there, and wondered “where are all the people? They should be here by now.”. Just then, I saw a man dressed in full Hasbro clothes run up to me and try to get into the room. I casually put my hand over the door and said “sorry sir, but no ones allowed in until 2pm” The mans face turned red, raising his voice “I have waited all day for this panel and I should be able to sit in the front seat!”, immediately afterwards, he pushed by me, and sat down. “Sir, I'm sorry but I need to have you out of this room, or I’ll have to call security” I pleaded, but he wouldn’t listen, so a little later security dragged him out of the building. “jeez”, I thought. If he had waited in line like everyone else, he would have gotten the first seat, now he wont see it at all. In the end, the Hasbro panel was maxed out at 120 people. Afterwards, I walked into the room to pick up stuff left behind, and the voice actors offered me free autographs! I was so excited, I could barely take out my DVDs for them to sign. I got autographs from Tara Strong, Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman and Nicole Oliver!

After the Hasbro panel, I had to help with the rave, so I looped around the hallway, and climbed the main staircase, passing all kinds of cool people and costumes, “man, I cant wait until I'm done with this shift so I can enjoy more of the convention” I thought.  “Where do you need me?” I asked one of the two other guards who were checking badges at the entrance. “you are supposed to look for suspicious activity over near the doors” the guy said.  “Oh man, only 8 more hours to go” I thought to myself. The lobby had actually become so full that we had to shut down the escalators into the lobby and start managing the amount of people coming in and out, due to the room being over fire capacity.

I was standing near the entrance to the rave, listening to the bass and beats inside, when all of a sudden the music stopped. I knew something had to be wrong because a rave doesn’t stop until it ends. I heard loud banging coming from inside the rave and screams (not the usual kind), so I grabbed the nearest guard and checked it out. What we found inside was the music stopped, two people unconscious on the ground, and one guy screaming about celery running through a crowd. I called an ambulance, and checked on the man who was screaming, he was obviously high on some kind of drug, and I didn’t know what to do. So I called the police, and when they arrived they took the man away, having to drag him out of the rave. It turns out he was high on LSD, and was having a bad trip in the middle of the rave.

Every year I went to Ohayocon, I was always told off by security guards about stupid little things like how I cant sit along the wall when I'm tired, or how I'm not supposed to be in a line until a certain time. It wasn't until the year I was one that I realized just how important they really are, without them there would be no order, people would get hurt, and the convention would be nowhere near as fun as it could be. Being a security guard at the convention helped to show me that there is more than just a lame excuse behind security requests, and that they should be taken very seriously.

 

This video shows a lot of the Cosplays that people had during the convention that year, and it also gives a good feeling as to what it was like to walk around the con.

Sources:

Sabooya2, , dir. OHAYOCON 2012 COSPLAY COMPILATION [HIGH QUALITY]. 2012. Web. 9 Sep 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CthsgxJ3Rc>.