Eastercon advice

[white_hart]

I would really like to go to Eastercon this year, but anxiety brain is making me second and third guess myself about my ability to deal with the full con experience. I know I’ve done three years of Nine Worlds, but the central London location made it really easy to stay off site and for T to come too and just go off and do his own thing during the days; that’s not going to work for Eastercon so it would just be me by myself and I’m a bit worried about how that would go. (It doesn’t help that Easter is so late this year I won’t be able to take recovery time the week after, as it’s 0th week of term and work will be busy.)

Reassurances, encouragement and stories of how to survive a con as the kind of sociable introvert who absolutely loves the right kind of interactions with people right up to the point where she goes splat and tends not to be great at pacing would be appreciated here!

Comments

[antisoppist]

I haven't done cons but I do work-related conferences/events and sometimes wish my life had something in between me working alone in my house for months and me interacting with lots and lots of people non-stop for three days.

I have got better at pacing with practice. Can now go "I will have had enough of people by Thursday so rather than ploughing through and being foul and grumpy on Thursday, I will miss session X on Wednesday afternoon, do the Wednesday night dinner, and skip the first session on Thursday morning". Can you go through a programme and book yourself breaks in advance? Sometimes a hotel too far away from the event itself makes this harder to arrange. Although long walks are beneficial, it makes it harder to just disappear for an hour to sit in your room with a book if this is going to involve walking miles (in the rain).

If you need excuses for absenting yourself for a bit, I have found "I am only here for four days and this is my one chance to go to a fabulous fabric/wool shop" quite handy, whether the location is London or Helsinki.

[white_hart]

Thank you - that's all really helpful. I can do this!