Dragon Con is an epic event in Atlanta - and for MARTA riders. Dragon Con is the largest science fiction, comic book, gaming, and fantasy convention in the universe, attracting wild costumed crowds for a 3-day megafest of fun and parades. All in Atlanta’s sweltering late-summer heat.

“Everyone is having fun except me,” I thought to myself as I boarded MARTA at the Inman Park-Reynoldstown station. See, while I was surrounded by people dressed as fun comic book characters, I was dresssed in my prim “going to work my CNN Saturday shift” outfit.

I sat down. On my left, a middle-aged man wearing a skin-tight Batman outfit stretched over his paunch. On my right, a pale 19-year-old from Alabama, wearing a heavy leather jacket with an 8-inch plastic crow stapled to his leather sleeve. I struck up a conversation, asking him exactly how staples held his large sturdy fake crow upright. He politely explained his stapling technique.

Then, the MARTA doors flew open at the MLK station. An exhausted, sweating woman dressed entirely in University of Alabama college gear, stepped onto the train. (There was also an SEC college championship game downtown that same weekend.)

She looked around for a seat. No dice, no seats available. She looked at the young leather-man’s crow, a bit confused as to what universe she had stepped into.

Instantly, the leather man leapt to his feet, offering the exhausted Alabama football fan his seat.

Sometimes, being different isn’t about defiance.

Sometimes, being different is about acceptance.

And we all rode downtown together.