Me, My Shell(f) and I: On Making Over Fifty New Writer and Reader Friends Online in Two Days

   ‘OK… Wow… What has happened to me,’ the mental echo I will be hearing as I write this and long, long after the completion of this reflection is inevitable. I just have to accept it as well as the fact that whilst I am still me through and through, I have definitely evolved for better or worse, though hopefully the former – one is never the best judge of oneself indeed. The past two days have been both overwhelming and thrilling – more perhaps the latter than the former, for my horizons are once more expanded beyond my wildest beliefs. Yes, as the title of this post has suggested, I have made over fifty new writer and reader friends in just two days – friends with whom I’ve had stimulating virtual conversations on two of my favourite pastimes, reading and writing, of course.

   Social networking was never my forte. I believe it is still not, however because openness to experiences is one of my strengths, why not embrace the opportunities to be more open indeed? It was with these thoughts in mind that the day before yesterday, I decided that enough was enough, let’s just see if I could express my wish to make more reader and writer friends online. Having just started blogging regularly last month, I had learnt the hard way that having a strong support network was paramount for my blog’s and my own growths. I also hoped to take the opportunities to be there for my fellow readers and writers, suspecting that maybe there were many individuals who’d felt lonely and misunderstood on their reading and writing journeys like me. From my experiences and observations, I had also found that as readers and writers, we were not always the most confident people in the world. Many of us would constantly worry about our reading preferences and genres of writing, whether we’d read and written enough, were we too socially awkward to have friends and so much more. I had always found words of affirmation and other practical acts of encouragement immensely helpful and I thought I should give back to the world and create a ripple effect. So there I was two days ago, posting on a few Facebook groups I’d joined last week, finally stopping the repression and self-oppression by saying what I wanted to say, instead of hedging very, very indirectly and waiting for others to initiate friendships, like I had always done in the past. It … worked, or rather, more than, because today, after all those stimulating conversations, there are still over a dozen messages unopened in my Messenger app. My lovely new friends, if you are reading this, know that I absolutely appreciate our deep and passionate conversations and that I will get back to all of you right after I’ve achieved my weekly goal of writing three to four blog posts, my commitment to myself and my readers (this essay being my second of the week so I need to crack on). Receiving your kindness and support have been truly humbling for me. Many if not all of you have thoroughly proved me wrong with regard to friendships. I used to think that the more friends I had, the shallower my friendships would become. I know better now. My friendship hypothesis is reformed – the more open I am to making friends, the more opportunities for deep friendships there would be. The support from my old friends has been solid and making new friends has definitely strengthened my support system. To all my friends, old and new, thank you so, so much for your love and acceptance. You are amazing xx

   What about you – what myth-debunking friendship experiences and mindsets have you had? Feel free to share them with me 💕 Cheers to friendships 🥂