Daily printout: May 7

My name is Alex Wood and I’m a retail associate in Belvue, KS. I have been with the Postal Service since December 2024.

After hours, I’m a cosplayer.

I drive to anime conventions in the Kansas City area to wear costumes and accessories that represent my favorite characters.

These events feature panels of famous voice actors or discussions about anime and fandom. I enjoy going as my favorite character and taking photos.

I cosplay characters I’m passionate about, such as Vash the Stampede from the Japanese manga series “Trigun.” The whole series is about love, peace and knowing that the person sitting next to you on the train is experiencing life just like you. It resonated with me during a challenging season.

The best part of cosplaying is the community. You dress up, and other people want to take pictures with you. Cosplaying also is about handmaking and crafting. You can spend hours hunched over a table with an X-Acto knife and a sewing machine. I can’t sew very well, so I find elements for my costumes in thrift stores and make alterations.

You spend two months at your kitchen table making your costume, and then people recognize you at the convention. But you also experience the physical discomfort of your costume. Your wig can be itchy. Your shoes are uncomfortable. One time I had to keep my back straight in a corset all day.

For one convention, I didn’t get the body paint I needed for the character in time. So, I mixed poster paint, cornstarch, lotion and food dye to create body paint. It worked well — but I stopped for breakfast at a local drive-thru. I was covered in blue body paint wearing armor and a blue wig. I told the employee at the window I was going to a convention, and she accepted my answer.

I was in my high school’s anime club. I would love to go back there to teach others what I’ve learned and help kids interact with the media they enjoy.

“Off the Clock,” a column on Postal Service employees and their after-hours pursuits, appears regularly in Link.