The Geek Lyfe Is Thankful!Â
Hey everyone! My name is DeAngelo Murillo AKA Darth Mexican and I am the founder of The Geek Lyfe. I wanted to take a moment this morning to recount my origin story of how I started The 
Geek Lyfe so many years ago. I started a humble blogspot blog back in 2012 and basically used it to share my favorite memes and occasionally write articles that contained my personal thoughts but would never dare share them. Up to that point in my life I had thought so little of myself and tried my best to never step out of the lines and always do what other people wanted in hopes of being accepted. After only a few weeks I quit updating my blog because I was certain it would never amount to anything.
The day my life changed was the day staff members from Phoenix Comicon walked into a coffee shop I was a barista at the time. I shared my love for everything geeky with them and they highly recommended attending their convention. I had never known of the event prior and decided to go. When I asked my friends about going with me, they all gave the same hesitant rejection but used different words. Crushed that I had to not only go by myself, let alone figure out driving and parking in Downtown Phoenix by myself I began to come to terms with the fact I would sit it out.
Now, I can’t quite recall what exactly it was that have me the courage to change my mind, it might have been an anime I was watching at the time, but I did a complete 180 and was hellbent on going. Not only would I go but I’d make my own cosplay of an Imperial Guard from Warhammer 40k! I had absolutely no idea how to make a cosplay so I resorted to simply buying gear that looked similar and spray painted it. satisfied with my creation, I threw it on and headed to the convention!
To say I was nervous would be a severe understatement because I was so used to being a wall flower and pretended that I was interested in topics or hobbies I really loathed. Now I was in a giant convention focused around everything I cherished and not only that but people constantly came up to me for photos of my shitty cosplay I made. The entire weekend was a huge blur due to the overload of emotions and new experiences but I remained focused on my major goal of going to meet one of my all time favorite cosplayers.
Me with Rosanna Rocha!
After searching the entire weekend for her, I finally found her. She just finished posing for a photo for fans then waited until they walked away before she dropped her sweet smile in exchange for a look of complete exhaustion as she dropped into a chair and began scrolling through her phone. I had to fight my nature of always considering the feelings of others because I saw that, obviously, she was tired and unhappy in this moment how could I worsen her mood just to please me? So I lingered like an idiot, pretending for 20 minutes that I was interested in anything but her and watched as fans after fans came by asking and receiving what I wanted all weekend within a matter of 15 seconds. Finally I gathered the strength to walk over, clear my throat, and ask for a photo with her. She gave a long drawn out sigh, gave a half smile and said ‘Sure.’ then gave a pose. I wanted a selfie but could tell she was not in the mood. I was horrified that the woman I came to see all weekend had been frustrated with me, so I sheepishly took the photo and before I could finish saying ‘thank you’, she already turned and walked away.
Defeated, I wandered the halls of Phoenix Comicon in a haze, that interaction reconfirming my thoughts that I was nothing but a bother. That was until I entered the booth of another cosplayer by the name of Rosanna Rocha. She gave a sweet smile and pitched her items to me. When I gave a halfhearted attempt to look through the prints of her other cosplays, she hovered until finally asking me if I was alright. Surprised, I admitted what happened and she apologized on behalf of the cosplayer then started talking to me about my favorite movies and shows. I was floored that she took the time to actually talk to me and make me feel better and even tried to make up for it by saying “Well, I think you are pretty cool! We should take a photo together!”. I agreed and wore the stupidest grin on my face the rest of the week, that single experience turned my entire convention experience around. When I returned to my friends, I told them of how incredible Phoenix Comicon was and they were blown away by my experience. I could not believe that people did not know about this convention. I wrote up a Facebook post about it and folks responded well to it.
Still, I wouldn’t find my confidence to voice my opinions to random folks until I met an ex girlfriend of mine. I won’t go into too many details out of respect for her privacy but I will say that she is a 
wonderful woman and while it is sad things did not workout between us, I have nothing but respect and support for her! During our relationship she informed me that she worked for another geeky Facebook page under a handle. They had over 300k followers who went crazy for each and every post they did. Unfortunately management for the page was lackluster and she had wanted to do her own thing because the situation did not seem like it would change for the page she was working on. Ever the optimist, I encouraged her to branch off and do her own thing but unfortunately she decided against it. Frustrated, I brought back my old blog and revamped it and began posting regularly and then sharing my content to prove my point.
While she remained ironclad on her decision to stay with her page, I discovered that people appreciated my writing. Even in it’s horrific state, friends encouraged me to continue, and so I did. One thing lead to another and we gained a small following on our own Facebook page. I asked my ex to help out with it but she was concerned that the owner of her page might see it as an act of betrayal. I started hitting a wall of posting three times a day on Facebook and writing articles.
I decided to recruit for someone to help out with the page, I asked friends who happily agreed but then flaked out the moment I asked for work. It was even worse when I had no choice but to kick them from the group since they barely contributed. I resorted to searching through folks who constantly liked our content and ended up on Spocktopus! From her profile alone I knew she loved geek culture just as much as I did and sent her a painfully awkward message asking if she’d like to help. Thankfully, she agreed and was excited to help!
Together we blazed a trail writing various reviews and articles and organizing giveaways! Soon I woke up every morning to work on my blog rather than prove a point. As it grew, my ex eventually jumped on board to help when folks began to take notice that we weren’t going away. There are so many more tales to tell but I’ll save them for another time! As the years went on, our staff grew to include photographers such as Mauro Gonzalez, Carlos Urquidez, Chris Strelski, Deegan Marie, Ken Oum then writers like Brian Hampton, Tacita French, William Allen, Justin Duane, Van Davis, Casey Davis, Tanner Koch, Ashley Maul our content creators Clayton Latz and Tony Odisho, our Editor Jessie Velasco, also past writers like Alicia Yuhas and above all else our followers and fans like you! We would be no where without you and we appreciate you guys for supporting us each and every day! None of this would have ever happened had it not been for the kindness of others!
May the years to come be filled with many more wonderfully geeky times! 🙂
Chicano | Fighting/Writing for Diversity | DM since 08 | Anime Lover | Site: https://www.thegeeklyfe.com | info@thegeeklyfe.com | http://twitch.tv/that_deangelo | https://linktr.ee/deangelomurillo
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