Have you ever walked into a room of people and you don’t know a soul? Some folks are totally comfortable with that. Not me. I’m pretty much a shy sort of gal, but always trying to break out of my shy mold.
A few weeks back, I came across some information about the Midwest Meet Up hosted by Jennifer Rizzo. I was wondering “What is this?” Are you wondering too?
Well, let me explain. It’s a casual get together for midwestern bloggers. Coffee, munchies and girl talk.
Hmmm…. This could be fun. Should I go? My shy self was saying “Let’s not.” but another part of me was saying “Bring it on girlfriend!”
After hemming and hawing, I chose to register and go. “Way to go girl!”, bring-it-on-girlfriend side said with a few good fist pumps in the air.
“Whoa Nelly!” my shy side said, as she pouted and stomped her foot.
My bring-it-on-girlfriend side said to my shy side “Let’s see if our sister, Mary Colleen, wants to join us. Even if the Meet Up is a bust, we get to spend the day with our sister. That’s always grand.” Shy side agreed, because there would be a friendly face in a crowd of strangers and our sister is grand.
Now reverse to the beginning of this tale. Imagine walking into a room of strangers. Everyone is seated in a circle and eating muffins and sipping coffee. (I assume it’s coffee sipping but who knows. It could have been wine tasting at 10am, but probably not.) Are you imagining it?
I see my sister seated next to an empty chair. “Whew! There’s Mary Colleen. Double whew! There’s an open chair next to her.” thought my shy side. And I slid into my seat.
Well can I just tell you, we errr… I mean, I had the nicest time at the Midwest Meet Up. Strangers I mean, bloggers in the midwest are just the nicest people. Each person’s story and reason for blogging was inspiring and motivating for me.
As I was babbling about why I blog, because the shy side of me didn’t know what to say, the bring-it-on-girlfriend side of me said “I love the creative process of blogging.” Well yes that’s true. “And I want to continue to develop my blog and its content and challenge myself to be creative.” Amen sister! I didn’t share a great and hilarious story about chasing robbers like KariAnne at Thistlewood Farms or climbing fountains like Lynda at Oh So Shabby, but that’s ok. I’ll share one of those stories next time.
I learned some things from this inspiring group of women. I need business cards. Not the boring ones I used to have in the corporate world, but pretty ones. Yay! You get an adorable bag of cool swag. I can paint a dresser in my kitchen, because chalk paint doesn’t have fumes. The Haven is a conference worth checking out and still register, because more tickets will become available, so I did. I need to watermark my pictures. I should dot com my blog and add ads. And the list goes on. But most importantly, I learned bloggers are a kind of sisterhood made of friendship and support! Woohoo!
I learned there’s a whole lot I still gotta learn, but I’m excited.
I’m inspired.
I want to inspire.
The sky’s the limit!
Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive. ~ Anais Nin
Our Rosey Life 