I don’t know about you, reader, but I plunge into a sadness spiral the second after leaving the convention floor on a Sunday afternoon. I refer to it as Post-Convention Stress Disorder. For me it’s C2E2, Anime Central, and then Chicago Comic Con (in that order) and then I’m financially tapped out for the year.
Sure, it seems logical to leave your favorite nerd convention after the second or third day of walking around and spending money, but then the revelation hits: YOU WON’T ATTEND ANY MORE CONVENTIONS FOR A WHILE.
And that sucks. Reality is the worst, isn’t it? I’ve detailed my intense feels for you below, from start to finish.
First, I look forward to my last convention for weeks or months before and think it’ll never arrive.
Then I have trouble sleeping the night before, because it’s like Christmas morning.
But I finally manage to fall asleep and get out of bed on time, and I can hardly contain my excitement in the car
Or when I check into my hotel room.
It doesn’t even phase me when I hit the crazy lines to get my badge
Because nothing beats walking onto that con floor for the first time of the weekend.
It’s like a vacation and a carnival and a therapy session all in one.
The excitement simply cannot be contained!
And then I accomplish the one thing I came to do, whether that’s finding the ultimate collectors’ item or grabbing a prime panel seat or meeting a celebrity I admire.
So I go to bed happy and then wake up the next day to do it all over again.
Fatigue sets in by Sunday morning, but I still end up at the convention for the last time and all I can think about is how much I miss my bed.
So I make the trek home, in a significantly different mood than on my original journey.
That’s when the sadness finds me, because I know it’ll be awhile until my next con.
And that sucks.
It really, truly sucks.
Because even though I try to distract myself, I’m still sad.
And a whole lot of upset.
It’s hard to go to sleep that night, knowing reality awaits me in the morning.
At work the next day, people will inevitably ask me how I am and I’ll want to be honest
And act how I feel on the inside
But it’ll get to the point where that sadness will fade and seem silly.
I’ll finally realize that it’s better to look forward to the next con than mope over the last.
And then I’m happy again, because the countdown has begun!
Well, that’s how I progress through each convention journey! How about you? Any other emotions to add?
Main image credit to MRio on Flickr. The gifs in this post were found through Giphy and are the property of their creators. No copyright infringement was intended and I’d be happy to add additional attribution if desired!
