Cosplay is just fandom, and we're all fans

I'm a fan.

A fan of a lot of things horror movies, my fiance, the Boston Bruins.

And I wear my fandom on my sleeve. Literally. You can take a look at me on any given day and guess from the pins on my jean jacket, my T-shirt, and my ball cap what, or who, I'm a fan of.

Not everyone is like me. Some people are more subtle, or even secretive, with their fandom, but everyone yes, everyone is part of some sort of fan culture.

As Sci-Fi on the Rock takes over the Sheraton this weekend, hundreds of fans will flock to the hotel to share in their collective fandom and celebrate pop culture.

It always makes me think of an exchange I had with a group of friends a few years back.

In the elevator withNinja Turtles

It was the Friday of the Sci-Fi on the Rock conference and a bunch of friends were infrom out of town to go to an IceCaps game. They'd booked rooms at the Sheraton not knowing that it was SFOTR weekend.

When I met up with them for a few drinks, they were talking about sharing the elevator with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and made a couple of jokes about the cosplay nothing disparaging, they just thought it was weird.

The thing was, these guys were heading to a hockey game and at least one of them was wearing a jersey.

And that's basically the same thing as cosplay.

• Cosplay kings and queens get creative for Sci-Fi on the Rock

The only real difference is that he bought his jersey at a store and didn't spend the time to make it, but that's just because Sidney Crosby jerseys are easier to buy than a Master Splinter suit.

There's not much difference in being a sports fan or a sci-fi fan.

'Got me right in the feels'

The Goldbergs, acomedy show set in the 1980sI'm definitelya fan of, tackled this issue in a recent episode. Theatre-geek son Adam Goldberg goes to a hockey game with his hockey-fan father,Murray Goldberg, and then Murray goes to see Joseph andthe Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Adam.

They even hugged a bunch at the end, which got me right in the feels.

That's the thing about being a fan: you feel acceptance when you find other people who share your fandom and it gives you something outside yourself to rally behind.

I literally jumped with joy when Jordan Peele won his Oscar for Get Out because it was acceptance of a horror film by the Academy. (It also put representation in perspective for me in a way that I, a straight white dude, never understood before.)

When Itbecame a cultural phenomenon last year it felt the same way.

• The growing hunger for horror: Stephen King's 'It' breaks box office records

There's a sense of pride when your fandom is accepted or the thing you're a fan of is successful.

But I don't have to explain that to you, you know how it is.

You're a fan.