I’m fan-girling hard today — not just over the guests announced (so far) for Fan Expo Canada, but because this trip has become our thing.

This August will be our third time going to Fan Expo together in Toronto… and this year, it also lines up with something special:

🗖️ 18 years married this September
🎉 3 years of making Fan Expo part of our anniversary tradition

What started as “Hey, this looks fun” has turned into something we look forward to every year.
It’s part fandom, part vacation, part nostalgia — and all us.

I’ve sat in packed rooms for panels that gave me goosebumps. We’ve waited in lines for merch we definitely didn’t need. We’ve eaten overpriced pizza, taken blurry selfies, and walked for miles in shoes we thought were comfy.

But more than anything?
We’ve made memories — the kind that remind me why I started blogging in the first place.
To document the real. The joy. The nerdy, imperfect, life-in-motion parts that make it all feel like mine.

Making Memories, One Con at a Time

Our first Fan Expo was when our son was around 3.5 years old — our first weekend away since becoming parents and buying our first house.

We drove those couple of hours into Toronto feeling that mix of guilt, excitement, and freedom only new parents know.

That year, we saw Kevin Smith do a panel (yes, that Kevin Smith — the one who loves Degrassi High and tells stories like I do... something I really appreciate about him). Jay Mewes was there too, telling stories in his hilariously long-winded way — and seeing him fan out on Canada and his love for us as fans? It was electric. It was unforgettable.

I sat in the DeLorean. We wandered by LeVar Burton and Amanda Tapping. We watched the Lost Girl cast talk about their work like it was no big deal.
And we hung out with friends, walking for hours, just being us again.

The second time was just before the world hit pause in 2020.
That’s when I met Brendan Fraser — and I swear I almost cried. No, really... the full body shakes were a thing!

This man shaped my childhood to adulthood: Encino Man, School Ties, George of the Jungle, The Mummy — all of it.

He had just flown in from South Africa (same with Tom Welling at the time) and was still somehow the kindest, softest human in the room.

We also met Laura Vandervoort, who not only gave my husband a great photo opp, but actually knew where Peterborough was — that little moment of hometown connection still makes me smile.

This year? It’s a longer journey — 15 hours from New Brunswick to Toronto — but it feels like the most important trip yet.

Not just because Ewan McGregor, Tom Welling, and Michael Rosenbaum are (hopefully staying) on the guest list.

But because this year, we’re combining three things that matter deeply to me:
✨ Our anniversary
✨ Our friendships
✨ And my never-fully-extinguished dream of working in entertainment

This is my way of staying close to that dream.
Of living vicariously for a few days, breathing it all in, and reminding myself that the creative, messy, expressive side of me is still alive and well.

Letting the Dream Out

I’ve always loved this world — not because I wanted to be on stage or in front of a camera, but because I knew stories lived there. Big ones. Important ones. The kind I always hoped I’d write someday.

Going to Fan Expo each time feels like getting just close enough to that world to whisper, “I still believe.”

It’s a way to reconnect with the creative part of me I kept safe for a long time — the part that loved imagining what could be.

As a kid, I used to daydream that something I wrote would end up on screen one day. It never felt completely out of reach… but I tucked that dream away anyway.

I would act out the books I read, get lost in the romance of it all. I’d sing my guts out to songs that felt like they belonged in a movie scene. Certain lyrics and melodies still trigger core memories — not just from my life, but from how I imagined them playing out in a story. On a screen. Somewhere I could see it come to life.

The moment I realized just how much I missed that version of me? It hit me watching The Fall Guy with Ryan Gosling. (Yes — Canadian boy, Breaker High fan from way back.) There was something in that film — the stunts, the love letter to storytelling, the scrappy energy of it all — that tugged on something deep. Like it was waking up a part of me I’d quietly shelved but never really let go of.

This is the first time I’m really letting that part of me speak publicly. And it’s scary.

Because sharing this version of me — the nerdy, Hollywood-dreaming, introverted-but-still-reaching version — feels raw.

But I also know: if I want to become the woman I dreamt of being as a child…
I have to stop hiding her.

Writing this post is part of that.
So is going to Fan Expo again.
So is letting joy take up space in my content — not just strategy, not just how-tos, but real, imperfect, memory-making life.

Because maybe the roadmap isn’t about building a niche.
Maybe it’s about telling the stories that make you feel most like you.

To close out this long winded conversation...

Sometimes the most important thing we can do for ourselves is let the hidden parts out in the open — not for approval, but for air.

“I’m not chasing a spotlight. I’m walking beside the story I still believe could be mine.”
“This isn’t about going viral. It’s about remembering the version of me who used to daydream with a pen in her hand.”
“Maybe the first step toward becoming who I’m meant to be… is letting her speak.”

So here’s to fan-girling.
To long drives.
To awkward selfies, packed panels, and dreams that still have something to say.