Three years ago I made an invitation to someone to come with me on a trip to Otakon and I got upset when they cancelled, due to me being naive and immature, inept in my attempt to grow closer.

The trip never happened and I carried on being miserable in my head without attempting to amend the situation. I reached out for the first time in three years tonight and I realized that I caused this person a great deal of harm that I was unaware of until now.

Four years ago I was sexually harassed at a con and spent this whole time in denial, bottling it up, and misplacing the harm the incident caused me to people who didn’t deserve my animosity.

It’s normally con season now so the lack of cons at the moment has given me the chance to process my trauma and realize that I was at risk of becoming an abuser myself, and my silence did in fact cause some damage. My personal issues are still no excuse for my carelessness.

The next con season, make better choices than I did. Don’t wait years to work out your problems. Whoever you decide to room with, if something doesn’t seem right, don’t hesitate to call it out. Don’t tolerate this behavior and don’t let yourself become the problem.