Growing up, I was told that roleplaying was a loser thing to do. That the only people that roleplayed were 40 year old wack jobs who lived with their parents in the attic and never had a relationship with a real person. My parents were both popular in school with no knowledge of what roleplaying or cosplaying was actually like, as were the rest of my family members.
I was also told that I had to suppress many key parts of my personality because men would find them undesirable and I would never make friends like that. So once I left high school and began my journey of self discovery as every 18+ year old does, I ran into a major problem.
I had no idea who I was.
My entire identity was crafted by my parents! Down to the very core pieces of my personality, none of it came from me. The only truths I knew about myself was that I liked music, and I wanted to be a good person. The question “Who am I?” plagued me like no other. My first year of college came and went, and I found God and decided that I was a Christian.
Then during my last week of finals, I had everything in my life come crashing down around me. I lost my friends, my scholarships, my home, my parents, all my money and my grandfather. I then decided I was a nobody, just another worthless loser living on a bench in the park or under an overpass.
I picked myself back up and about a year later I found myself married. Okay, makes sense so now I’m a wife. Then a year later I was a mom. During that same year, I became a tutor. Throughout all of this, I picked up the mask of whatever I was doing at the time and made it my identity. My personality was empty save for whatever I spent my time doing. I had no hobbies aside from writing and listening to music, I didn’t continue my education in any aspect, and most of my opinions were just kind of following that of my friends. They did their research and we all shared a similar moral ground, so surely they would be the same anyway.
One day, my glorious husband suggested something that changed my entire life: Dungeons & Dragons.
Yes, you heard me right. Dungeons & Dragons, the world’s best tabletop roleplaying game ever.