My mom, sister, and I had a trip planned to Aruba in May. It was the first planned venture of the summer to be canceled.
The conference I attended last year, BEA or Book Expo America, came next. My plan was to extend my stay in NYC and go to BookCon too. The organizers of the two events pushed the conferences back to July but ultimately canceled them this week.
Breyerfest was supposed to be my last trip of the summer. In the past couple of weeks I’d wondered when Breyer would make the call. Concerts and large equine events canceled so it wasn’t hard to fathom that Breyerfest would be hit by Covid-19 too. The question was if it would be outright canceled, pushed back to another time of the year, or rolled over to 2021. I hadn’t expected virtual but I’m excited to see what a virtual Breyerfest will look like and have full trust in the Breyer team to make it great. Even if it isn’t what we expected Breyerfest 2020 to look like.
I won’t lie and say I’m not sad about all of my plans for the foreseeable future being canceled. I’m sad I won’t see friends and meet new people. I’m sad I won’t experience new places.
But being sad about cancellations doesn’t mean that I don’t understand the need to do so. There will be other Breyerfests. There will be other book conferences. There will be other and different places to experience. But you can’t replace people. I’m so lucky and grateful that the way Covid-19 is impacting my life can be redone or fixed.
I’ve read enough posts on model horse groups about people feeling sad about show cancellations and enough responses guilting them about the way they feel because others have it worse. You can care about more than one thing, and feeling sad about something you looked forward to doesn’t negate feelings about the world at large.
Instead of pouring over travel plans I am at home with a sleeping puppy on my feet (who will have a photo dump post soon!) while trying to finish up the rest of my semester.The brain fog of the pandemic is lifting off of me and I feel like reading and making plastic pony things again. I haven’t been to the barn in close to a month because of my state’s stay at home order. While sad about current events, I see a light at the end of the tunnel for new ways to connect with people since we’re all in this together.
I still have plenty of photos from Breyerfest 2019 that I need to publish! These are from the 2019 Breyerfest Open Show Custom Division.
Kristian Beverly 