One of the strangest moments of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con was the moment of realization that I was never able to leave San Diego Comic-Con this year. I don’t mean that in the horror-movie-esque manner in which it immediately comes across — or maybe I do, come to think of it — but more in the sense of, after years of feeling jealous of those who’d find themselves in the hotels immediately surrounding the convention center during the show, I found myself in that situation and discovered that I hated it very much.
The appeal of staying in a hotel literally right next to the convention center is, I think, pretty immediately obvious: imagine not having a trek between the show and where you’re sleeping! You don’t even have to cross the road to get to your hotel! It’s right there! After many years of walking anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour at the end of the end of a long day to get to where I was staying, there was no small level of jealousy when it came to talking to people staying at the Hilton Bayfront or the Marriott Marquis, who’d talk about quickly headed back to their hotel between panels to take a brief break.
This year, I had the opportunity to be one of those lucky few, thanks to some last-minute shenanigans that I was not party to, only profiting from, and… I feel as if it might have been very bad for me, if that doesn’t sound entirely ungrateful.
Don’t get me wrong: yes, my commute time was minimal, and I got to be right in the center of the action for the entire show. On the other hand, I was right in the center of the action for the entire show. What I had never actually appreciated before this trip was how important those walks to and from the show each day actually were, in the sense of allowing my brain to get into work mode, or into de-stressing mode. What I had previously thoughts of as simply… well, just walks… were airlocks in and out of the real world, reminding me of a sense of perspective that I sorely lacked this year.
Instead of getting a chance to see what passes for normality in San Diego — the entire city does like to indulge Comic-Con, it has to be said — I found myself living inside the bubble for the entire time; everything had an activation, decals, and branding. I could hear the show at all times, it felt like. For everyone who’s still like I was, wishing that they could live the Comic-Con dream for the entire length of the show… be careful what you wish for… or at least learn to aim higher.
