Blog Friends to Real Life Friends

I have been part of this strange world of blogging and tweeting for almost a year now and I have to say that it has been one of the most amazing adventures of my life. I have met so many wonderful people through my blog and have been exposed to so many opportunities that I never expected to happen. I started writing one day out of pure boredom and curiosity. I didn't follow any blogs at the time, I had never read anyone's online posts or even known of anyone who participated in the blog world. (Except, of course, the infamous Richard Edelman 6am blog that was relentlessly quoted and referenced throughout my entire 4 years of studying Advertising at Loyola.)

I think when it came down to it, I needed another outlet to document what was going on in my life and was open to sharing that with whoever was willing to listen. I never really expected anyone to read along with my, at times, less than amusing banter, except for my close 'real life' friends and family back in MN. I still remember the first time someone from outside the US visited my blog, I think I probably went to bed that night thinking I was about to become some sort of international blogging sensation, but either way it was such a cool thing to know that in some weird way, I was touching someone else's life half-way around the world.

I have participated in a few blogger meet ups and have had created such great friendships with each person. You all know that Lindsay from Tales of a Yank was the first person to welcome me to Australia and even offered me a place to stay when I arrived. Lindsay and I had never met prior to that day at the airport, but I already knew so much about her through her twitter posts and daily blog updates. I had already heard about the places shes visited, the men that she's dated and lots about her recent trip to Europe.

I'm trying to imagine how different my life would be without blogging and all of the people I've met along the way. I was thinking about it today when I was reading This Minneapolis Life's blog. She had mentioned me in one of her recent posts and talked about organizing a meet up when I get back from Australia. And that just made me think how lucky I am to have met such a great person who I have come to know fairly well through cyber space and yet have never actually seen in real life.

It's funny because there are so many great bloggers out there that if/when I meet them in real life will be like we've known eachother for years and will be able to just pick up the conversation where our last post left off.