Long time ago I used to go to comics/manga festivals. I remember going each year to Lucca Comics, a famous festival here in Italy.

From time to time, it happens that I go back there, or that I notice some people going to a similar festival nearby. They’re often young, enthusiastic, yet they feel kinda silly to me.

I wonder if I would have said the same about myself, or if there’s some kind of difference. When I say silly, I’m not talking about how they dressed, more like how people behaved.

I remember one or two years ago we were walking and a group of cosplayers passed nearby. They were talking of how one girl didn’t invite them to her birthday.

A shame, I agree, but at the same time two thoughts appeared in my mind: Either that girl didn’t consider them friend (and it would show, right? It would be strange to not grasp the relationship between you and another person) or she was strange and didn’t invite them because of that (and again, I’m quite sure there might have been some clues about that).

Maybe all this changes with age. Possibly while we age we learn, and the price we have to pay to learn is part of that careless enthusiasm, that makes you jump on a train, not knowing the destination, ignoring the clues or the signals from people around you, to make a ride you wouldn’t have done if you started thinking about it.

Who knows who’s the silly one, right?