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Renee_daughtry

Internet Manager for a Daily Newspaper

3 kids, one full time job, one business on the side. A scuba diver, wanna-be world traveler, voracious reader and a writer of a journal published online for over 10 years. ...

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Friends, Old Online Journals & Time

I’ve been a loner much of my life and the internet has only exacerbated this trait.

 Before, and when I was younger, I would spend a fair amount of time with people.

I got my first computer in the summer of 1996 and while I have a few very good friends, they happen to live rather far away from me. So, hanging out or catching a movie or dinner is not an option on a regular basis.

I started journaling in 1997 and met so many wonderful people through doing so. Back during that time, I could count on a couple sets of hands, how many people were keeping an online journal. And God knows, they were NOT called BLOGS.

When blogs first started becoming mainstream, the old school journalers would have debate after debate on the subject. You had the old timers vs. the newcomers and things would get quite heated. Funny now to look back on it but we took it VERY seriously.

 It was a lot of fun being part of that community though. We were a small piece of the web but we were scattered all over the globe. I was so into the whole concept that I started keeping track of where people were writing from. Where The Journals Are was one of the first ‘burbs of the online journaling community. It wasn’t difficult to do at first but an explosion happened with the arrival of diaryland.com, blog.com, and others and it became too much to keep track of who was writing from where.

I met one of my best friends because of the journal. She happened to be linked next to me on a webring. She is an Aussie who, at the time, was living in Australia. She ended up meeting a wonderful Jersey boy and she came over to the states and they were married. My very first plane flight of my life was to fly up to NJ and attend their stateside wedding. It was also the first time Amanda and I ever met face to face.

It was wonderful but it also spoiled me.

I couldn’t find the same like-minded people in the area I lived in. And so, I became even more of a loner.

I’ve grown so used to just being by myself, with my books and the internet, that I seldom even try to find friends now.

 And honestly, it’s HARD to find more time in the day to not just make friends but to cultivate the relationships. That may sound terrible but after working all day, doing web design on the side, doing things that I like to do that many people don’t (like scuba diving!), my children and my relationship with my fiance...I don’t have much time left over.

I don’t know what it is about this area but unless you’ve lived here forever, it’s sort of hard for us transplants to FIND really GREAT and true friends. I used to think it was just me but I’ve had this confirmed by not just other females that have relocated to this area but guys tell me the same thing.

 It sort of sucks but for someone who is an introvert, it’s difficult. Maybe I should run an ad....

LINKS: 

Blast from the past link to check out if you are so inclined:

Where The Journals Are: http://www.justme.org/geographical.htm