It Ain't My Imagination

I have to say that when I began my blog, the last thing I ever expected was to make friends.  

It began with Craig’s List, and reading a Best Of post that gave a link to Kristy Sammis’ blog.  Her self-effacing humor and genuineness inspired me to begin my own, and I hoped that I might find a voice of my own that people might find entertaining.  

Almost immediately, Sherri discovered me and posted my blog’s first comment.  I’m sure that she discovered me by the link to my profile that goes up when a blogger posts a comment on another blogger’s site, and I’d just commented on one of Kristy’s posts.  However she found me, the warm reception was enough to draw me in completely.

The important thing, of course, is that I’m writing.  I’m a writer, and I am actively writing.  I knew, of course, that when I began to write, it would also become important to be read.  That’s happening, too.  

What I did not expect (and by “did not expect”, I mean I was taken completely off guard) was that people would care about what I had to say.  And not just what I had to say, but what I had to say next.  

All of this makes it seem like it’s all about me, that it was always about me, but that’s not the case.  Okay, it is the case, but there’s a growing list of sites I check every day, and sometimes more than once a day.  Because I care about what they have to say.  (Even if, like LJ, they don’t use words.)

Once in a while, these terrific people step off the page and send an e-mail or an IM, and a conversation ensues.  I love what that happens!  One minute, you’re chatting about the writing process and the next, you’re on the phone until the cheesecake cools enough to be put in the fridge.  Out of these small connections there sometimes comes a moment that pops like a flashbulb, an instant in which an Imaginary Internet Friendship becomes real, starting with the two words that mark the beginning of every friendship everywhere: “You, too?”

As friendships grow, real friends challenge each other to grow and change.  It’s been my experience that the best friends deliver that challenge without effort…it just happens, and you find yourself sitting in stunned silence in the wake of an epiphany.

I. Love. That.

So this has become so much more to me than “looking for ways to procrastinate”, as Ramblin’ Girl wrote in her first post.  It’s about broadening horizons, wisdom from unexpected sources, and friendships that I hope will continue to grow.