“Look to my coming, at first light, on the fifth day. At dawn, look to the East.” -Gandalf the White
As the last vestiges of winter slowly give way to spring, many of us are once again made acutely aware of that gaping hole in our annual schedules. This is typically “AdeptiCon season” and its absence for this second year is a bitter pill to swallow for all of us organizers and, certainly, all our loyal attendees. To lose something we all loved doing for one year was unthinkable, but to lose it for two was almost unimaginable. Missing friends we only got to see once a year for three is even worse. But, while it’s easy to dwell on the unfortunate situation, we’re starting to look to a brighter future for AdeptiCon in a very real and practical way.
The transition from winter to spring is also metaphorical. We’re starting to see infection rates drop and vaccination rates rise across the country. While we’re not out of any proverbial woods, we are moving in the right direction and we are confident that, should we continue on this path, there will be an AdeptiCon 2022. We will gather again to celebrate our hobby and our fellow hobbyists. What that celebration will look like is unclear. We’d be presumptuous to guess exactly what a ‘return to normal’ even means at this point, but we do know that we’re starting to lay the groundwork to make the next AdeptiCon the same convention you’ve always known.
But that path back will not be travelled easily. There was a sort of annual momentum that everyone involved in AdeptiCon had come to feel, if only implicitly. There were deadlines and schedules, meetings and planning that happened, in part, because they had happened every year for 18 years. That memory muscle has atrophied during the pandemic and it will take some effort to get it back. It will take a new determination and a higher level of commitment by everyone involved to see AdeptiCon returned to its former glory, but we are beyond confident that we will see it happen. We have a chance to reboot the convention in a way that allows us to enhance everything we loved and address any challenges we need to. While it sounds a little contrived, AdeptiCon will be back better than ever.
So, while we lament not seeing friends and playing games again this year, we should feel optimistic about meeting again soon. In the meantime, stay safe and healthy, protect others, and keep painting!
The AdeptiCon Staff
March 16th, 2021
