If I told you that I finished my cosplay minutes before a Lyft picked us up to attend an Overwatch meetup, would you believe me? That in itself perfectly encapsulates my Anime Expo experience. Despite battling the heat, running on fumes, and eating overpriced chicken nuggets- this past weekend completely reinvigorated my love for cosplay.

While I'm still recovering from exhaustion and avoiding the con plague, I'll keep this recap relatively short and sweet. Scriptgiant and I stayed at a local Airbnb (which was interesting to say the least), and were able to attend all four long days of AX. While out Fallout 3 cosplays always generate a neat response, particularly the 'missing eye' white mesh contact effect, I was especially nervous to debut my newest cosplay, scrawny Australian Jamison Fawkes/Junkrat from Overwatch!

This was my first time embarking into the world of armor building, and making things perfect and wearable was certainly a learning experience. I can confidently say that I loved my costume, and I am even more excited to be able to continue building upon it and improving my skills as a cosplayer. This weekend, above all else, inspired me- that very special flame was reignited in me, and I felt excited to create again.

Photo: Martin Wong

The past year was especially rough for me, mainly dealing with the surprising quarter-life crisis. Creating web content like this little blog and making elaborate costumes- those are things that bring me such a pure joy, they push me to bring out some good out of any situation. Crafting allows me to release a creative energy so needed when times are tough, and I am so grateful that it's been able to bring smiles to people's faces, too.

Anime Expo, although you were extremely crowded, you yet again managed to provide that little spark sometimes needed to keep moving forward. I absolutely love cosplaying, and I hope that I can continue to do so indefinitely. Thank you to everyone that I met, you all really gave me the validation I sometimes need when debuting a new costume. I hope that you all had a great time- until next year!

Stay tuned for a Junkrat build write-up including materials used and how I created the peg leg, as well as the importance of understanding the magic of posing with props!