On October 13th-15th I attended an academic conference run by the Popular Culture Association of the South located in Nashville, Tennessee. I went as a part of a journal editing internship that is offered by my college, Gordon State College. My paper was on the video game Undertale, a turn-based role-playing game made by an independent developer that was a massive success in the gaming community. I worked on my paper for about 6 months in all, and I put a lot of effort in. I presented on Thursday, aka the Newbie day. I was the chair for my panel, and extremely nervous. After I finished my presentation, I realized several things that I thought were enlightening.
1. In the end, your work is what matters.
Most people didn’t know that I was an Undergraduate student, meaning my research and presentation was of such high quality that their expectations of undergraduate students were exceeded. I’m glad that I was able to represent myself so positively. When the panel ended and the room applauded, an almost overwhelming feeling of pride came over me. The past 6 months had led up to that moment, and it was definitely worth it. I’ve never seen 6 months end up equating to 15 minutes, but stranger things have happened.
2. Although video games may not be written about very much (at least positively) in the academic community, many people are still open to learning about video games.
I fully expected for no one to show up to my panel, especially since there were panels about subjects more people are interested in, such as comic books and action movies. Luckily, the room was pretty full, and although people may have been there for other panelists, it seemed to interest them. Many people came up to me and congratulated me on giving a good presentation. In fact, a professor of game studies and design from the University of Montevallo thought I was a graduate student.
3. Other people are much more willing to overlook our mistakes than we may think.
This may seem a little off-topic, but as the chair of my panel it was my responsibility to introduce everyone who was presenting, and I only had about ten minutes before the presentation to meet my fellow panelists. Of course, after learning how to pronounce them correctly, I promptly mispronounced them once the panel begun. I was extremely embarrassed, but my fellow panelists instead of being upset, gave me reassuring smiles. They could probably tell I was nervous, since my anxiety was through the roof. Having a commonly mispronounced last name myself (It’s Sowell, like towel but with an S) I’m sure they were used to the mistake and didn’t fault me for it. Although their smiles were small gestures, it was much appreciated.
Overall, I had an amazing time at the conference. I made many new friends, and had many interesting conversations. Although my topic wasn’t the most popular, my research was still respected. I’m amazed at the diversity, not only of the research, but of the presenters. It’s fascinating to experience people from across the southeast coming together for a few days and interacting together. I loved my experience, and already have a few paper ideas for next year.
