So I have officially attended my first furcon (many of the people who met me were shocked whenever I told them).

My takeaway? Awesome, and I wish I had done a little more. In some detail:

I arrived at the hotel minutes to midnight on Wednesday, exhausted from exams and lack of sleep, so of course wasn't particularly social. No one knew what I looked like, so it was easy for me to slip into my room unnoticed and just fall asleep.

Thursday I spent largely cooped up in my room, too anxious to go to any of the proposed meetings. I mulled over whether or not the trip was a mistake and whether I should have used the money for something else.

I had the fortune of being shown a Telegram group by a friend, however, and from there could monitor everyone's attempted meetups (made difficult by the crap internet connection). Seeing one in progress, I finally decided to man up and go down; when I got there, there was only one person present, though it quickly became two. A part of me was screaming that I could go back to the room, but I forced myself to go introduce myself.

...best decision I ever made. That meeting introduced me to two furs I would talk to several times over the week, and gave me more courage to go to a vore party on Friday. At the party, I admittedly quickly froze up because there were like 60 people present, though as it cleared out, I began to talk with several people, some I knew from online, some I had never met at all. It went pretty splendidly.

The remaining days of the con, when I wasn't attending the nightly rave or the occasional panel, I got to meet up with more people. Some of whom I had felt too afraid to talk to during the party, and immediately wished I had spent more time with them. People I had never met before in any form were willing to show me kindness and affection; I slowly broke my tendency to handshake in favor of offering and receiving hugs. It was... something.

I think I get what I've been missing all these years now. That there's a warm, inviting family for every fur out there, it's just working up the courage to go and find them.

I made the right decision. I have made more progress on my social anxiety in 5 days than I have in 25 years. I'm going to try for another one very soon.

I've omitted names for privacy, but I can say that everyone I met was a joy to meet. If I did meet you, I'm so glad I found the courage to do so, and if I haven't, I'll definitely try harder to next time. <3