A couple of weeks ago I did a First, for me: I attended my first virtual convention. To wit, the NASFiC from Columbus, Ohio, which was entirely run in cyberspace – with panels and things on Zoom, and virtual gatherings held in breakout Zoom rooms (chatting in person on video) or in text chat on Discord servers which were broken out into programming rooms, the Green Room, the virtual bar, the consuite… the works.

Oh. My. God. I needed this.

One doesn’t perhaps even realise how hunkered down and isolated one is until there is an opportunity for something like this – and it’s been described by at least one of the participants as a “family reunion”. Isn’t it just. You get to talk to people you might normally have encountered in meatspace at a con here or there and it’s a rush of joy, that connection – you’re talking to your tribe again, to friends you don’t see often, perhaps even (because of the virtual nature of this beast) seeing friends from across the globe whom you might only encounter at GLOBAL  cons, not even local ones. I felt knots untying in my soul. There are people out there – there are still people out there – who know and understand me, who listen when I speak and laugh at in-jokes or nod in understanding or even disagree with what I am saying but then we have a spirited discussion on the matter with someone whose opinions matter – do you get the feeling I miss cons? I do. I miss the give and take, the camaraderie. I usually go to Orycon, in Oregon, in November, but it is iffy if that will even happen this year and if it does I know several good friends whom I usually look forward to seeing at this con who will not be there because their health is just to fragile to risk it.

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