How Sez Sees It

When I take part in GISH I am often asked what it is. Even after explaining the acronym of ‘Greatest International Scavenger Hunt’ people still just state in confusion and this has led me to also question ‘what is GISH?’. For this I need to search deeply into my own thoughts on the matter. GISH is both a place and a state of mind. In terms of place it is a creative space where good deeds are done through a series of wild and whacky actions. State of mind varies from moment-to-moment between believing it is the greatest event to take part in ever to wondering what possessed me as it seemed like a good idea at the time to sign up. Hard work is both rewarding when playing GISH, but also leads to unreasonable pain and suffering as materials run out, sleep is lacking and sugar levels run low. GISH becomes a source of joy coupled with excruciating moments of frustration, embarrassment and self-loathing. Only a masacist would keep putting themselves through this process. Like childbirth...

So last night I am not going to lie. I became very down heartened by my cosplay. This might seem odd in light of a vlog and blog on creativity where I seemed to embrace that activity. I was looking at Instagram and there were all these amazing cosplayers who had been doing it for years and were really talented. They looked so much like the characters they were trying to bring to life and I was amazed by what I saw. Their costumes were so professional and the settings were amazing. I was in shock by it all. The other problem was that I was very tired and cranky. It was a long and very difficult day at work and I really felt low at the time. Not the best time to go checking out other people's work. When I first started cosplaying I did it for a laugh. I did it because it seemed like a fun thing to do. I just enjoyed dressing up and doing my make-up. Then I noticed that my follower count on Instagram went up and I was getting more likes for cosplay than anything else. Then I start...

When I was a kid I had a vivid imagination. I was one of those kids who had an invisible friend...or several. I also had an invisible horse called Flinders, which was fun. If I played a game it was always so vivid and real in my mind. Action figures and cuddly toys became real in my head and I believed they could come alive (think Toy Story, but I came up with it first). One of my favourite things was to play dress up. This wasn't just fancy dress or for Hallowe'en either. I would become Cinderella or Ariel or Jasmine. Mostly I was a Disney princess (in my mind I was also Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Belle and Maid Marion). I didn't know it back then, but this was my early route to cosplay. Back then I hadn't heard of cosplay, but looking back I realise that is what I was dabbling with. I admit that I didn't understand cosplay back then. I thought people went to sci-fi conventions and dressed as Klingons or Star Trek captains because they were weird nerds. Since t...