Friends And A Tribe

I started this post two months ago then after the death of my aunt, traveling to help clean out her condo, and all the life-ing going on I set it aside.  With everyone’s videos and blog posts this week, I decided it was a perfect time to dust it off and finish it.

Whoever said real relationships can’t be formed online was dead wrong.

I met Katie first through a mutual friend over two years ago. You can call her my Twitter BFF. She makes me laugh at every turn and through collaborating with her, I learned a new skill, but I’ll let her keep writing the RomComs. She’s the master, I am but the student. Finally meeting her in August was THE BEST THING EVER. Next was Bianca. We bonded through our mutual love of General Hospital and you can usually find me tweeting with her and Katie about it. Her books about the dark side of love give me a thrill like no other. Two words: page turners. Then I met Kennedy and Stephanie and hilarity ensued. There’s also Callie, Peter, Stuart, Ian, and Wiz.

Then, I gained a tribe. A tribe of writers of different genres who support each other through humor, compassion, and encouragement. Emery and I would tweet with each other here and there. Then one day, he included me in a #FF. Soon after, Sonya tweeted me that she was following me because Emery said so. It was a gregarious move and I loved it. Before I knew it, I belonged to a tribe that welcomed me with open arms. Matt, Jennie, Adam, Olivia, Niko, Sarah, Doug, Shay, Jason, Angelina, and Hayley. I joked the other day that Sonya is the gateway drug, but it’s true. She brings so many people together.

Up until I met my tribe, I never really fit in with one group. Kind of like high school when I would wander away from my fellow band geeks and drift from clique to clique. I am fortunate to have stumbled into this group. Everyone possesses their own talents and while writing is a shared talent, what binds us is deeper. I like to think it’s our letting go of our egos and being ourselves with each other, being honest in the moment about how we are doing and feeling. If you ever want to see edification in action, watch my tribe when someone has a bad day or just received bad news. It’s simply amazing.

Every member possesses their own talents. We aren’t a group of sameness. We’re a tribe of diversity, each with their own voice that we celebrate. That’s where I fit. Where we are all different, write different things, and really don’t care that we aren’t uniform. The conformity within the group isn’t conformity at all, but unity in being. Or, as Olivia says, our real connections.

The same can be said for the friends mentioned before the tribe. The difference is the social network of the tribe (HELLO! SOCIAL NETWORK) providing an interconnected support system. Rather than a small safety net here or there, I have this GIANT net to fall into when I need them.

From that enormous net, I formed a friendship with Doug. The tweets increased, the sharing grew, and the laughter has not ended. He’s my other best friend, my awesome twin, and the male version of me. Meeting him last month on my road trip home from my aunt’s was THE OTHER BEST THING EVER.

I don’t need anything for Christmas this year because, as far as I’m concerned, I have it all.