You start to feel it sometime during the final blowout of a con or maybe during that last rushed meal between panels, but it is still there… that quiet gnawing feeling that “this is all about to end”. A convention can become an escape and cocoon of sorts. You’re surrounded by your tribe, being your most true self without having to explain or apologize to anyone. It’s awesome and filled with your own brand of reckless abandon, but then you see the cracks beginning to form and reality begins to creep in. It’s the packing for the trip home and making sure that you haven’t forgotten that awesome thing that you might have paid too much for, but, whateva, it’s a con! And the clock ticks closer to the return to the life before. But that’s just the beginning. 

It’s not until you’re home and back to your day to day that it really hits, especially if you’re not surrounded by fellow geeks. It’s the worst then. You have all of these awesome stories to tell about the cosplay and the concerts and that crazy mashup that only real fans would get… you know what I’m talking about… and no one to tell them to. It really sucks. Then you stew in your malaise, wondering what you can do to bridge the gap until the next one?  Yeah, the emptiness and the hunger… nothing can fill it but epic geeking out!

I remember my first serious con drop. There was all of the stuff that I mentioned… and the resentment. Why can’t I be surrounded by geeks all of the time, why do I have to pretend that I care about the Kardashians when I’m really about the Cadassians?(See what I did there?) The truth is, after my first DragonCon I felt all of this and I resolved to make my life a little more DragonCon like. I started hanging out with geeky people more and throwing myself more into geeky pursuits and it worked – took a few years, but it worked. So now, I still feel con drop, but it isn’t as bad as it was. The high that comes with the low makes it so worth it, just have a plan in place to deal with it.