I was going to write about my time in San Francisco and San Jose first, but before I knew it, I’d already made it to Vegas.

Las Vegas — the original destination, where React Conf 2024 was being held.
Since it was the first one in three years, there were a lot of attendees.

The resort was quite far from the airport, so I decided to find people to share a ride with on the conference Discord.

I gathered people arriving around 2 PM, and among them were a speaker and someone I recognized.

https://github.com/facebook/react/pull/28491

It was someone I’d exchanged comments with when I submitted a PR to React.
I couldn’t believe I was actually meeting people I’d only ever seen online…

While waiting for another person, we chatted about various things, including when React 19 would be released.
It was my first real English conversation during the trip, and I was sweating bullets whenever the small talk hit a lull.

Somehow, we made it to the resort.
People had gathered from all over the world — mostly from Europe and South America, largely from semi-English-speaking(?) countries.
I looked around for fellow Koreans, but I only had my suspicions and never actually approached anyone.

After waiting a bit, people I recognized from PRs and YouTube started showing up. Lee Robinson from Vercel, the YouTuber Theo, Tanner who created the TanStack libraries… It was surreal seeing them in person. I wanted to go up and take photos with them, but the vibe wasn’t quite like that. Everyone was casually like, “Oh, you’re so-and-so? Nice to meet you,” and moved on. I couldn’t bring myself to ask for a selfie.

Still, I wanted to talk to more people, so I dropped a message in Discord and was looking around nervously.
A person who works at MongoDB came up and started a conversation.
They were from Denmark and mentioned their kids were learning Taekwondo and Hapkido, so we chatted a bit about Korean Taekwondo.
The hardest part was explaining what “Remember” (my company) was and what services it offered.
Business cards… you take a photo… digitization… and then… HR services… that’s what the company does…
It was the hardest moment of my life.

After chatting for a while, we finished registration, and everyone scattered to mingle.
I mustered up the courage to grab a beer and join a group, so I headed to the bar, but… \

I realized I’d left my passport in the room.
After that one defeat, my confidence for the day was completely drained, and I just went back to my room.
Dinner options were slim too, so I held out for a while before caving and opening Uber Eats. \

Since this was a resort on the outskirts of Las Vegas, most restaurants were far away. But being in the land of cars, even long-distance delivery was possible.

The venue was buzzing with people, yet here I was in my own bubble of silence…

I’m still going back and forth. Should I go out and try to mingle even now? But my energy is completely spent.
In my heart, I’m still torn between seizing the opportunity and finding the courage, but my body is heavy and I’m lying in bed. I’ll try harder tomorrow.