Whinny City Pony Con 2022 Reflections Part 4: Final Thoughts

Overall, I had a great time. It was nice to go to panels again, shop in the vendor hall and just being around my fellow MLP fans again. While I have gone to online cons over the past 2 years and enjoyed the panels and virtual vendor halls there, I greatly prefer IRL cons and I am glad to see them come back and for me to attend one once again. For the most part, I overcame my indecisiveness and spent more time going to panels and less time pacing the floor of my hotel room. Though next con, I really need to fit in proper meals instead of just snacking on popcorn.

I didn’t make any friends at this con, which sucks, but oh well. I did have a couple of nice interactions though. The vendors were nice and I got a compliment on my BC 2018 t-shirt as I was walking out of Closing Ceremonies. I hope that one day I will have friends to hang out with at a con again. Social anxiety sucks. I guess I just keep hoping that someone will reach out to me and be my friend, but I know it doesn’t always work like that. I have to put myself out there, but I’m too nervous to do that. I’ve lost friends because I was too nervous to be the first one to message, because I kept waiting for them to message me first. I have a tough time making friends and a tough time keeping them too. I really have to get better at making and keeping friends. Sorry if that got too personal, but I just had to vent that out.

While I do love small cons, I do miss the big con energy, and big con vendor hall, of BronyCon sometimes, though when I say this I am referring to BronyCon 2018, not 2019. I think Whinny is the smallest pony con I have ever attended, which is not a bad thing it’s just different. I was so against ever going to a big con again after BronyCon 2019, but nowadays I find myself appreciating both types of cons. In many ways, Whinny City was just what I was looking for after the chaos of BronyCon 2019. Whinny was a lot smaller with less crazy lines, in many cases there were no lines at all. With the exception of the AD Vendor Hall, I didn’t have to be afraid of the lines being capped or having to arrive super early to a panel. Whinny City was a much more comfortable experience in that regard when compared to BronyCon 2019.

As much as I complain about BronyCon 2019, I am still proud to say I have attended it. Hearing others talk about it as I walked through the Whinny City convention space, there is a sense of pride of having been to that particular BronyCon, whether you liked the craziness of it or not.

In conclusion, I really liked Whinny City 2022. It was exactly the convention I needed after BronyCon 2019 and it revived my love for conventions. I had all but given up on ever attending another one until I attended Whinny. Attending this con has also reinvigorated my love of pony and made me realize how much I love these conventions and want to keep going to these events. I can’t say for 100% certainty when my next con will be. I have hopes for Ciderfest 2022, but if that doesn’t pan out perhaps Whinny or Cider in 2023 will, or maybe even Seaquestriafest 2023. We will see what happens.