Stranger Friends

I’m leaving tomorrow to meet up with some people from the writing forum, Absolute Write (AW). A friend of mine created the picture for this post and put it on a shirt for me. Thanks, friend. I won’t be meeting all the people on the shirt, only a few. This isn’t the first time I have met internet friends, but each time I wonder if they’re like their online persona. Many of us have an online voice different from real life, so of course the online persona is what’s expected. This subject was recently posted on AW. Some people are more reserved online to avoid offending others; some explore behaviors they don’t use in real life, while others act the same.

My family and friends have asked if I’m nervous about safety meeting people from the internet. I tell them it’s safer than meeting someone at a bar, because I already have an idea of how they think, whereas meeting someone at a bar I know nothing about. We don’t even know if the person next to us on the train, or in the grocery store is a murderer. All we can do is go with our gut feelings, and my gut feeling about the people I’ll be meeting is they are nice, talented writers. I’ve read their ideas and opinions, and watch how they interact with others and me. There are a few I haven’t talked with on AW, so I’m looking forward to meeting all of them.

I thank you for reading my blog and following along in my travels. I’m still working on my vacation pictures and hope to have them posted soon. Take care and I’ll see you next week.