Come to the LARP side...we have cookies!

    So a LONG LONG time ago in a fantasy world far away I was a young girl who was going to her first larp.  I remember walking onto the site and seeing all the people who were quite a bit older and had been doing it for a while and just couldn't stop thinking how amazing those folks were.  You know the people who were thirty something and had all the best armor, knew all the rules, had rules specifically grandfathered in for them and in reality helped out all of us young ones to get into the game and see it really was a fun time.  I remember having moments of, wow, I really hope I'm that cool when I get to their age.  I hope I can still have that much fun and help out the newcomers.  Here I am nearly eighteen years later and I am still larping.  

    Recently I've been helping to run one particular larp, am somewhat of the older crowd in a larp that I play in and have been casting at another larp and I have noticed.  I've truly become one of those people.  In the larp I help run, I have been one of the go to staffers for the players, most of which are 22 and younger, to ask questions, help them with character histories, give them ideas and teach them how the game works.  With the larp I play I have become the healer of the group as well as the one who welcomes the new kids in to show them the ropes of our particular group of oldbees.  

    Recently a few of my friends and I have discussed how it really  has been a change in the regime and we have seen on faces and heard them say how we are, or in my mind we are becoming those people to our younger compatriots in these arts. In some ways it makes me feel old but in others...it makes me actually proud in some ways that I have become a role model of sorts to these folks. I look at some of the people I have looked up to in some of my hobbies and I hope I can help some of these folks get to the point where they too become the role model for the next generation. 

    I'm not going to lie, in some ways it definitely weirds me out that I have become that person to those who are younger, because I never saw myself becoming that person. Getting such compliments for example my one of my friends received from a 20 year old, complimenting him on how fast of a runner he is. Or other such things like that. It has definitely been interesting having younger cast members and players informing me how cool it is that I know so much about it and that I've been doing it so long. I've never thought of larping as COOL necessarily but the sentiment is very appreciated. I just hope that I can help these kids to keep the magic alive and help to spread the enjoyment, fun times and really the love for each game as we move forward in all this. 

    Even though I have been backing off from some of these games, I used to be part of five or six of them and now I'm down to two and occasionally a third IF I have a free weekend.  But it is still nice to hear and see.  It really does make me smile and feel proud that I have turned into someone who people want to emulate  even if it is in something that is purely there for fun such as larping.  Makes a girl smile!