First Fandom

When I was young, I went through a rather brief period when I thought being a geek wasn't a good thing. This was when I was in the 5th or 6th grade.

The thing that brought me back to geek-dom was Star Trek: The Next Generation. My dad was a big TOS Star Trek fan, so he started watching TNG.

Once I started watching TNG, I was hooked. From there, I started watching TOS and then the movies. Star Trek was my first real fandom.

Also my first con experience was a Star Trek one. My dad and I went to several one-day cons in Grand Rapids. They usually had one star (I got to meet James Doohan (Scotty) and George Takei (Sulu) ) along with a teeny dealer's room and some viewing rooms.

But when I was in the 9th grade, we went to a 3-day con. The stars were Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (Nurse Chapel from TOS, Lwaxana Troi from TNG, and the voice of the computer) and John De Lancie (Q). There was also a massive dealer's room that anyone could go into. My mom and sister had come with us but didn't have badges to the con. But they were allowed to go into the dealer's room.

It was a great time, and it was the first time I cosplayed as well. I had a TNG uniform shirt.

So Star Trek was my first fandom. It's not my main fandom now but it still is one of my favorites.