Rory Patterson
Staff Writer
I found my community in a Crystal City hotel because of a TV show. It was my main source of happiness for over a year. During the lockdown era of the pandemic, I learned how important human interaction is to my mental health and how unhappy I am without it.
The lockdown was like a long winter, and the whole year after the pandemic started to feel like the month of March. Spring was supposed to be around the corner, but snow still littered the ground in dirt-stained piles on the sides of streets. I was freezing to death, but then I found life-sustaining warmth in a TV show.
Supernatural became the fire in my winter. My mother loved Supernatural and had badgered me to watch it for years, but it was October 2020 in the midst of the pandemic lockdown when I finally gave in. I sat down on my couch before my Zoom class and pressed play; it was love at first sight. It became my life raft, the light to the darkness of my days. As lockdown continued, my mental health declined, and the importance of the show increased. It was an escape. I finished 327 forty-minute episodes in just over a year. The end was bittersweet, like graduating from elementary school. You can always go back and visit, but it will never be the same. Even so, that doesn’t mean going back is bad, you just have a different perspective.
Going back and rewatching the show has been a beautiful experience. I get to enjoy it all over again with the knowledge that watching it changed my life and that I am so much happier now than when I was first watching. The dark winter that the isolation had brought upon my life has lifted and been replaced by a blooming spring.
But during that dark winter, one of the few rays of light to shine upon me was discovering not only Supernatural the TV show, but that there were Supernatural Conventions. It felt like a gift from the universe when I learned that a Supernatural Convention was scheduled to take place in August 2022 in Crystal City, just a few miles from our home. We bought tickets immediately and spent the next eight and half months anxiously waiting for a weekend in mid-August to come around. When the first day of the Convention finally arrived, we were beyond ready -we had our tickets printed out, I bedazzled shirts, we had Supernatural earrings, and we had even figured out the restaurants that were closest to the hotel so that we could eat quickly when needed and get back to the events.
Despite these plans, nothing could have prepared us for the community we were about to stumble upon. Being in a building surrounded by people who care about something with as much passion as you do, if not more, is a really wonderful feeling. The whole convention felt like a warm hug; it was family. People of all ages, races, religions, and genders gathered together and could be their full selves without worry of judgment. It felt like that first gulp of air after you’ve been holding your breath. It was in that breath that I realized I had found my community in a room full of strangers.
Every moment of the convention was pure joy, from listening to panels and discussion led by the stars of the show to waiting in line to get photos with them. It was all just so happy, albeit a little stressful at times. Of course, the best part of the photo op experience is meeting the stars. Getting to be hugged by and say hi to people who were a huge part of something that changed my life was incredible, but waiting in line for the photos was pretty amazing too. The excitement that flowed through the line was a joyful experience and bonding with the people next to you about your mutual excitement and enthusiasm for each other’s handmade costumes was really special. Even though people in line were complete strangers who you were not likely to see again outside of the Convention, there was this level of comfort and understanding that was mutually felt by all. It was also a nice relief to see that other attendees were just as excited as I was.
Getting my photo taken with Jensen and Jared (the stars of the show) was an extraordinary experience. I was squashed in a hug by the two of the people who helped me get through an incredibly hard time in life. It was very emotional and, indeed, squeal-inducing. And getting my charm bracelet caught on Jared’s shirt almost made me pass out. All in all, the freedom and happiness I felt at the Supernatural Convention were feelings that I had not experienced with such full force since the pandemic had started.
In the words of Dean Winchester (one of the main characters), “family don’t end in blood.” In three days time, I found a family I didn’t know I had and feelings that I thought I had lost. I found a community that, a few years ago, I would not have thought I would have felt a part of. Supernatural will forever be a monumental part of who I am, to the annoyance of certain friends and family members (I bring up Supernatural at almost every social occasion and there’s only so much my grandmother can take).
Supernatural is more than just a TV show, and that’s a hill I’ll die on. My passion on this point has also shown me the importance of taking joy in the little things, no matter how silly they seem. So what if other people think you’re crazy? I found something that brought me happiness in a time when happiness was hard to come by, and the sun seemed to be permanently behind a cloud. Though Supernatural did not by any means solve all my problems, it gave me hope at a time when I least expected it and most needed it, and it gave me a community that I’ll always be able to be a part of. Maybe how much I love Supernatural is weird, and maybe the community I’ve found because of it is just as weird, but I’m more than alright with being weird if it means being part of something as incredible as the Supernatural family. Some people find community through sports, others church or clubs, but for me, a TV show about two brothers and their 1967 Chevy Impala did the trick.
Photo courtesy of Chris Schmelke
