These Magic Moments

Well, we're back from Otherworld. It was even more magical as staff than it was as a participant, and I cannot begin to put into words how incredibly honored I feel to have been invited to work/play with this particular group of people. You know how when you're the new guy in a tight-knit group that's been together for years there're all these war stories and inside jokes that you can tell are funny but you just don't quite get because you weren't there and so even though you know everybody likes you, you're still a little bit of an outsider? Yeah, it was the exact opposite of that. There's always a little bit of withdrawal after OW associated events (because the people are all so fun to be around and we live too far south -- never thought you'd hear me say that, did you?), but this year it's stronger than it has been since our participant year (2004), because this is the first time we've had the people AND the event to miss. I need to find some sort of Otherworld methadone.

For those of you wondering what this wacky "Otherworld" thing I keep going on about is, go here. I can't tell you much about it, because I want you to go and have a great time, and it's one of those things where knowing too much is definitely a bad thing (sort of like if you went to a murder mystery weekend already knowing whodunit -- no fun).

What I will say is that before I was a participant at Otherworld, I was very shy, so much so that I often preferred to stay home rather than having to be around people who were not close friends. At Otherworld, I got to be a "more heroic version" of myself -- as a Bard, I made myself go up to people I didn't know, talked to them, asked them questions, engaged them in conversation (all things I was horribly uncomfortable with in real life). By the end of the weekend, I wasn't so uncomfortable doing it as a Bard, and after we got home, I found I wasn't as uncomfortable in real life, either. Am I now the most outgoing person I know? Absolutely not. But now I don't mind things like going with Chris to his rugby games and hanging out with the other wives -- sometimes I even walk right up and say, "hi!" before I'm introduced, which is something I never could do before. Okay, this is so not what this post was going to be about, but hey, there it is.

So, Otherworld is fun. Otherworld is about finding a more heroic version of yourself. Otherworld is about friendship and solving puzzles and also monsters and whacking things with foam swords. Otherworld is not a LARP, at least not in the way most people mean it: there is no system of advancement, the focus is on problem solving rather than combat (okay, there's a lot of combat. But it's for fun, not for gaining experience points or anything like that.). Otherworld is not for everyone, but it's for a lot of people who might not think so (in fact, those are often the people who get the most out of it). You should give it a look, and let me know if you have questions. If I don't have the answers, I know someone who does. Tomorrow, all about the Beckmonster and also plenty of knitting content. Speaking of the Beckmonster, I hear her dulcet tones now...

posted by Laura Y. @ 8:18 PM