For the longest time, I had actually forgotten about this in that I didn’t think about it because my mindset was “conventions are just not my thing,” being sure not to make it seem like I was passing judgment on friends and members of the same fandoms that I am a part of for… exactly as I just said, them not being my thing. But then I did remember that someone made the offer of funding tickets for me to an anime convention “if it was ever something I wanted to do post-pandemic”, although he was clear that if I didn’t want to, that was okay, I could simply never bring it up and he would assume that I would enjoy other geeky pursuits. But I did go to a LARP convention eons ago with someone who knew that it was my first convention, thought that I might like it, but would have been and was completely cool when it began to be referred to in conversations as “not my thing”. (It was enough “not my thing” that I never blogged about it.)

I didn’t mind the food, and I was even bought a necklace that I joked would go with the other necklaces that I had amassed over the years that I had a difficult time wearing due to skin allergies. This person bought me this necklace to have something to remember the experience by, and in a good way. I didn’t mind the gesture, and I should still have the necklace to this day. But getting back to what I wanted to write about, the convention made me uncomfortable. It might have been the number of people in attendance, the fact that everyone was extremely social and lively, the fact that it was a LARP convention (although the person in question thought that I might like it being a geek, there was the knowledge that I could never get into things like D&D)… it was basically a trifecta that all seemed to come together to make the experience uncomfortable for me, and this eventually telegraphed in my body language and facial expression. We got to go home early, and… this person… conceded that it might be LARP conventions that weren’t just my thing, or it might be the fact that I am not an optimal con-goer. I have known other people that have gone to varying types of cons over the years, especially since then, but I might have been — or be — telegraphing that it would be best for me not to attend these. My body language and facial expressions might say it for me here.

I’ve given it some more thought as I write this entry, and although I concede that there might still be a convention out there that I would like more, I wouldn’t mind not attending any more of them. And that’s okay.

I don’t want someone to pay money for one of these on a gamble and then me be like “I want to cut out”.