This week I had to do a big, grown-up thing. I had to deny myself something I had hoped for and wanted for over a year.

I decided that I would not attend the 2026 American Copy Editors Society (ACES) annual conference, which will be held in Atlanta this coming April.

One of my goals for a long time has been to attend an ACES conference, for I have heard that they are phenomenal. I have been a member of ACES for six years and during that time, many of their conferences were in US cities which were too expensive to which to travel, such as San Diego and Salt Lake City. I live in Maryland.

However, when I heard that the 2026 conference was to be held in Atlanta, I thought that city was much more accessible. I have a cousin who lives in its suburbs and I thought I could visit her during the same trip. Plus, I have never been to Atlanta, and I have heard it is a really neat city to visit. After all, the Olympics were held there in 1996.

I did research. I learned that the MARTA public transit would take me from the airport to the hotel, so I would not have to rent a car (yay!). Then I found out the conference admission fee (not cheap), the cost of a round-trip plane ticket to Atlanta for the conference days (eek!) and the room rates at the hotel where the conference was to be held (double eek!).

I just do not have the funds in my business banking account to justify spending all of that money. Yes, the funds for everything are there, but my account would be terribly drained if I spent it all on the conference. It wasn’t a good year for my business, largely due to the fact that medical researchers are very strapped for cash these days and are not hiring editors as much.

The only answer that made sense was no.

I can only hope and pray that there are better financial days ahead.

Did you ever have to deny yourself a big dream?