Convention Recap: Dragon Con 2025 - A Struggle with Balance?

So the past two years (2024, 2025) I have talked about have I have struggled with maintaining a balance. Dragon Con is part of my job now, but for much of my adult life it hasn't been work, it's been the best time of the year I have hanging with my closest friends. And the last two years, I have not done a good job with balancing those two competing desires. So how did I do this year?

Better. Maybe?

What I Did To Try And Have More Balance:

• I gave up all my signing times in the Sidestreet Book Market. I knew I was doing more panels, so I knew something had to give. So that is what gave. I told Ben he could give out my hours to whoever he wanted, however he wanted.

• Wednesday and Thursday I reserved as time I spent only with my friends. I didn't do any panels, I didn't go hang out in the Westin Bar, I just did things with my roommates, friends, and most importantly, LadyWife.

• The LadyWife made a lot of meal time reservations where I had gaps in my schedule, so we could eat meals with our friends.

Did It Work?

Well, sort of, but not really. 

See there was one major difference between this year and past years: instead of us all being in the same hotel, I was in the Hyatt with the LadyWife and one friend couple, while the other two couples were in the Westin. So...we didn't see each other as much. In past years, downtime would normally be spent hanging out in one of our rooms, all together. But being separated, that wasn't a good option. 

The next issue was the other room got up much earlier than mine. While I was up at the same time as the other room each day, my room typically didn't get moving towards breakfast for another hour and a half. I just spent the time on my phone mostly, trying to catch up on things, waiting for everyone to wake up and get ready. But because of this difference in schedule, our two rooms didn't grab breakfast together each day, as would have been the norm in past years.

And a few of the meal reservations, those friends weren't able to make due to panel conflicts or other plans. So basically from Friday morning until dinner on Sunday I never saw them. To be clear, I am not holding any of this against them! They were off having a blast, and if they really wanted to hang out, they knew my panel schedule.

So I did do things to keep a better balance, but due to things outside my control, they didn't really help as much as I would have liked. Cest la vie and such. 

But also...I am beginning to think that maybe there just isn't a full balance to be achieved. For good or ill, this is my job now. I just don't see a path forward where I satisfy my career goals, and get to hang out with my friends like I did when we were younger.

And that really does suck.

And sadly I just don't see it changing for years to come, at least not until I become a lot more famous and acquire some minions.

I made moves to help, and while they didn't pan out like I hoped, I think they are the best I will be able to do for now. In future years, maybe these moves will help more. I am slowly making my peace with that. 

Even as it makes me sad.