I have felt that way for a long time, I just didn’t know how to express it.
No one in my large family really gets me. There is always an underlying awkwardness that I reacted to by
withdrawing and separating myself from the crowd. Family gatherings were painful and so we seem to have abandoned the effort. I have done fairly well without these connections over the years. Amazing what a person can get used to. But….
I received 75 birthday cards yesterday. Seventy Five!
Well, they were Facebook greetings on my computer, but they were received as if I were tearing open all the envelopes one by one. Some of the people sending greetings are old friends. One of them, my high school drama teacher, who I recently found on Facebook,I haven’t seen since 1970. Other friends are new. Most I have never met face to face. One was from a close family member.
Facebook is my new neighborhood. It has everything I want in a neighborhood. There are always people to interact with about any issue under the sun. It reminds me of life in Tower Dorm at Marquette University. No matter what time you came in, there was always a bevy of girls with rollers in their hair and cream on their faces ready to debrief you on your last wayward date.
It is a very polite neighborhood too. If I don’t want to be available, I simply disregard what is going on and check up on what other people are into that day. If it gets noisy, I just turn off the speakers. If people are rude, I can evict them from my neighborhood.
If I want to see pictures of a friend’s recent vacation or new grandbaby, I simply go to their Facebook page and not only do I get to see the photos, I can leave a note to let them know I stopped by. Yes, there are lots of grandmas and grandpas on Facebook!
It is easy to expand the borders of my neighborhood. Mari Smith, Pied Piper of Social Media, has a free e course that tells you how to get started. I wish I would have had this fab how-to guide right from the start. She knows how to make it easy to meet your new neighbors. You can get the basics by signing up for the free ecourse at http://www.marismith.com I will be interviewing Mari soon so watch your mailbox! I can’t wait for my neighborhood to meet Mari!
If you are already a member of Facebook and want to use it to expand your business, you will be astounded at the atmosphere of positivity you will find in your new neighborhood. Internet business is taking the world by storm. There is a new paradigm, a new business model that you can’t afford not to know about.
If you want to be part of the slim percentage that is still making money in this economy, you will save yourself headaches, belly aches and wallet aches if you invest in Social Media Simplified, a DVD series on how to maximize your business on line. The internet is the new marketplace….make it your neighborhood!
While all of the perks of living in this new neighborhood have been surprisingly profitable for my business, by far the best part is feeling connected to people who care enough to send the very best, their heart felt messages, a bit of themselves, over the miles. You see, I didn’t get any cards in my real mailbox on my birthday. I know for sure that my birth family loves and cares for me. We are just completely disconnected from one another and out of each others loops.
What I Know For Sure (Thanks Oprah!) is that the feelings that I used to think could only come from my birth family; the feeling inside of being respected, admired and liked; the precious feeling of knowing someone get you, is available from literally thousands of other people you haven’t met yet. There is something to this Tribe idea (thank you Seth Godin). When one tribe doesn’t get you, there are countless other ones you can find that will!
I feel included. And for a girl who has had more of her fair share of exclusion in life, that feels amazing. 75 people took a moment and wrote a birthday greeting. It was the best birthday party ever.
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