Blogging Friends
If you'd have told me six years ago that I'd be one of those girls meeting people on the internet, chances are I would have laughed in your face.
I liked Myspace. I enjoyed changing my profile page every other week, commenting to my friends every day(or hour!) and making my pictures look really quirky and original. My friends stayed as my friends, and any outsiders were seen as weird and dismissed immediately. And that's how things were, and I liked it. Fast forward to now, and once a month I'm catching up with 'an online friend' who almost isn't an online friend anymore. They've become a real friend, one of those true friends who you want around. Infact, there isn't just one, there's a few. And that feeling really is bloomin' wonderful.
I always remember a quote on Stand By Me that said "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve...". And never has a truer word been spoken.
People will come and go and you lose friends as the years pass, realising who cares and who doesn't, but if there's one thing I am ultimately grateful it's blogging, and with blogging, the biggest acomplishment in my 'blogging time', is most definitely the group of inspiring and absolutely lovely ladies that I've met along the way.Take Rosie, and Sarah.. One lives an hour from me, and the other three hours, one is married and likes sewing, and the other is engaged and enjoys beach walks. I don't sew, I'm not engaged and I don't like the salty water at all, however in the last year, I find myself emailing them both once a week talking about mortgages and life, rather than blog chat, hanging out in couples rather than at a blogger event and asking for advice on baking and interior rather than HTML and stats. And although we have different interests, clothing tastes and future goals, there's something about a 'blogger' friend that just clicks. And you realise that they're more than just a blogger friend who posts pictures of what they're wearing. They're a genuine friend. A friend who surprises you with early birthday cake and presents.Then we have Kim. The girl who's blog I used to read every week, eyeing up her fashion sense and re-attempting her baking posts. Months of commenting turned into tweeting each other daily, exchanging numbers, to arranging weekends together and then teary goodbyes knowing we wouldn't see each other for a year. Which is utter crazy considering I've only known Kim for two years, yet with her posting life updates you almost connect with them on such a quicker scale. And although Kim has been on the other side of the world for almost a year, we speak nearly every week whether it be a simple Whatsapp message, an essay of an email, Sunday morning Skype chats or exchanging funny parcels, we know that we're still there for each other. And just counting down the days till we can hang out again. Kim is who I call one of my closest friends. The friend who you know is going to be about for quite some time. The best kind of friend.And finally, we have Claire, who I've hung out with possibly the most this year. What started as a fun friendship last year hanging out at events, has turned into a friendship who I share most of my deep and meaningful conversations with. Our lives are laid out on the table during a weekly night dinner catch up, and our ambitions and inspirations are encouraged by each other over weekend sleepovers. I absolutely love planning to see her whether it be giggles and pizza on a Thursday night, or drinks and lazy times with the other halves. Not only am I am grateful to have her around (and not so far away either), but I admire Claire for her outlook and enthusiasm on life. Her determination has certainly rubbed off on me, and she's one of those friends who you not only need around you, but want around you. Someone who certainly makes the Christmas list.
When JING got in touch about sending their tea gifts to a blogger I love, I knew who deserved taking time to relax, and reflect on her busy life and would appreciate something different, and that was Claire. She's a tea kinda girl (what blogger isn't?) and I wanted her to know that I appreciate her, and just to almost say "hey, remember to take time out for yourself, and indulge in a really nice tea experience, because you're awesome". JING has everything you need to give the gift of time to a blogger you love (or even that family member who deserves some chill time!), and Claire certainly enjoyed it.
So ladies, you know I'm not mushy to your faces (unless I'm crying at your kindness....) but this post is for you. It's just to say a thank you, a thank you for being there, and just being yourselves. And showing us that you can be friends with whoever, at whatever age, regardless of your likes and dislikes, and that if we all take away one thing from this 'blogging world', it's that we've made some friendships.
Real friendships.