ANST - Another list newbie

[Ghislaine Fontaneau/Elayne Hoover]

> My (sca) name is Aoife, last name as of yet unchosen, and mundanely I'm
> called Cait. I'm 17 years old, and I live in Dallas. I've been intrested in
> the SCA for about three years, but have only gone to one meeting in all
> that time, since my parents are convinced that all SCA people are weirdos
> and freaks and other uncomplimentary stuff. (Of course, they're just being
> careful, which is their job, but it's still annoying...) 

Dude!!  Deja vu!!!  I was fifteen when I found the SCA.  What worked for
me, is that my parents are/were divorced.  Dad had briefly played with
black powder re-enactment groups, and was cautious but understanding of
my SCA interest.  My mother however, was convinced that not only was I
hanging out with terrible-horrible-nasty-evil-degenerates, but I was
also becoming just like my father to boot.  My solution was to convince
my father to take me to events on his visitation-weekends.  This killed
two problems at once--Not even God could've gotten away with challenging
Dad's non-custodial visitation rights, and if Dad chose to take me to an
event on *his* weekend....; and it also solved the pesky problem of
minor's waivers.

I'm sure this method will not work too well for you, unless your parents
are divorced.  However, one of them is bound to be sympathetic...  My
advice: List, logically, all the reasons you choose to participate in
SCA activities.  Include historical research, education, the SCA's
wonderful safety record at events (I'm sure someone on this list can
tell us how much less likely a young lady is to 'have problems' at an
SCA event than, say, in a bar in Dalls) as well as a brief mention of
commraderie and friendship amongst SCAers, and even The Dream if you
think it might help your cause.  Maybe people on the list could help you
out with all of these bits-o-information?  After you have assembled your
"case" for the SCA, put your research-paper-writing skills to work on a
ten-fifteen page paper on the SCA, complete with bibliographical
references to websites on the SCA, books by members of the SCA (several
fiction authors are SCAers, refer your parents to their books and show
them the list of awards won by that "weird person who hangs out in the
SCA.")  The SCA has even been covered in modern magazine articles.  When
you have a paper that would impress the toughest high school English
teacher, plop it down in front of your target parent, let them peruse
it, encourage them to explore the references listed in the biblio, and
let logic kill their objections.

Just my suggestion.  Hey, the paper might be so good, you could use it
for school credit!

Ghia
-- 
mka: Elayne "Ely" Hoover
SCA: Madame Ghislaine Fontanneau 
elyh at wcc.net
________________________________________________          
"We must never asume the world we live in is civilized,"
		--Dr. Kathleen Holcomb, English Professor
============================================================================
Go to http://www.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.