Being Missed

There is a mix of emotions that gets stirred when someone says "I miss you". It's that same nostalgic, happy feeling that you get when you walk into a room of old friends you haven't seen in awhile. So when Jay Noel sent me a FB message saying that he gave me a shout out in the blog world, I was curious. Knowing that I hadn't stepped foot in the realm for a while, I wanted to know what he had said. Was it a critique of my last post? A post that was written many months ago maybe even a year ago, with a topic that was most likely irrelevant today? Jay wrote about bloggers that he met, bloggers that he would miss and mentioned what he liked about being blogger. Reading through his post, I recognized blogger friends (and I put no quotations around the word friend, because to me, these fellow bloggers have become friends) we had in common. It made me realize that the written word--whether in short emails, messages sent using social media, or even here in the blogosphere can create friendships. It can also create a sense of belonging, knowing my emotions and reactions was a commonality and not just isolated incidents. I got a sense of belonging, but yet one of individualism. I originally started blogging as a way to keep in touch with friends. I didn't like social media. I don't even think there was that many out there yet. But I do remember not caring for the ones that had been established back then. Although I had loved writing letters to my friends, it got tedious after awhile. I most certainly did not like to write the mass emails. Mass emails were less personal. So a friend suggested I start a blog. I don't have an excuse for stopping. I really never should have. I still do have things to write about. I just needed that little nudge. Thanks Jay!