Confession: I am actually a shy person and I’m scared to death of BlogHer.
In many situations this is true. You may not believe it. But I do struggle to “put myself out there” when I’m in an unusual environment. Meet me on my own turf? Ms. Confidence. Somewhere else? Not so much.
I’m particularly scared about BlogHer. Soooooo far out of my comfort zone!!! I feel just like I did those last few weeks of summer right before starting high school. Knowing that there were bigger, cooler kids. Wondering if I could hold my own. And wondering if I was really ready.
I’m just an average mommy-blogger. (I don’t hate that term as much as most. I’m a mommy and a blogger, so it makes sense to me.) I started blogging, like a lot of moms, to keep our families updated. But then I discovered how therapeutic it could be and I fell in love. And once I got on Twitter…I finallly felt like I had co-workers(the only thing I missed from “real” jobs).
Through my blog and Twitter, I have met so amazing people. I’m in an online book club, I watch as one of my IRL friend’s family grows & changes even though we don’t live close to each other anymore, and just recently I learned about bird sex. (Heh.) I want to meet some of my “friends”, and I want them to become friends instead of “friends”. (I really need to work on my over-use of punctuation!)
I’ve heard that BlogHer is what you make of it. It can be fun and exciting if you put yourself out there and meet people, or it can be boring and miserable if you aren’t at least a little assertive. There are other BlogHer newbies I want to meet. There are BlogHer veterans I want to meet. There are people I’m scared I’m not good enough for. (I really didn’t want to end that sentence with “for” but if I said “for whom” I’d sound like an ass.) There are people that I’m sad aren’t going. And since I’m traveling with citystreams I know that I’ll never be completely alone! 🙂
So I’ll try really hard to not be a wallflower, and I’ll be sure to make sure that I have a good time. Who’s going to be there to help me? Comment, tweet or email me if you don’t mind holding my hand(or hiding in the closet with me).
Well, I’m counting on liquid courage since we won’t have kids to worry about. :o) And plus, we’ll bring our cameras so we can be wallflowers and still have fun if we want.
I’m starting to get butterflies thinking about it too though.
Well you know that I am COMPLETELY with you on this. Each day I think, holy hell what did I sign up for. I’m sad for the people not coming, I’m thrilled to meet people I talk to often. And I’m scared that I’m just not enough. Shrug.
But hey, there’s always the closet route.
At some point we all need to start sharing when we get there, so some of us (me) don’t hide from the beginning.
Saw your tweet! Don’t be scared! Just think of it as a reunion of old friends! Smile and have fun! We all want to meet you!
I totally understand where you are coming from. Last year Some blogging friends came to St. Simons and we got to to meet quite a few new people. It was scary at first but when you meet them you feel like they were just a long lost relative. You have already created a bond with some of them online and meeting them “in real life” is just icing on the cake. Now I have a ton of new friends from all over the country because of our get together.
It will be so fun, I promise. (and this is coming from someone who has a hard time breaking the ice with anyone.)
If I was going to BlogHer, I’d be copying and posting this post and putting it on my own blog, since you said everything I’d be thinking!
But don’t worry, you’ll be fine! If anyone makes you feel “lesser” then they don’t deserve you to begin with!
I’ll be hiding in the bathroom as well so we can hang out while hiding.