When Worlds Collide

When I first entered the blogosphere, I was angry with our Government and the Democrat Party for allowing things to happen without putting up a fight. I was questioning my loyalty to the Party and was thinking about becoming an Independent voter. I start searching and reading information about both political parties in our country and discovered there was a movement for a Green Party. Hmm, who knew that surprised me and it was interesting to discover a third party movement.

While I was on my quest reading about our country political parties, I discovered blogging. I realized average citizens were blogging about politics, it was interesting reading others viewpoints about politics and discovering I was not alone in how I was feeling. My love for blogging began, I knew I did not want to blog about politics; therefore I began blogging about living with multiple sclerosis.

In the beginning, I kept my post strictly about my experiences with MS and MS related information before I knew it I was talking about what was on my mind. I began questioning myself many times about publicly talking about my life. I start feeling naked and fearing possible lunatics were lurking around. I claim I accidentally deleted my blog last year, it was not an accident I deleted it because of feeling naked and fearing lunatics.

Immediately after I hit the delete button, I wanted to reach into cyberspace and retrieve it because a part of me was forever gone and floating in cyberspace. Blogging was a comfort for me it was a way for me to release my thoughts and feelings before my mind burst. It was also my way of holding on to what I felt I was loosing. My cognitive is not the same living with MS, blogging is my way of working to hold onto what was changing in my life such as remembering words, spelling, writing, and putting sentences together.

Another reason why I love to blog is the virtual friendships. I did not expect to form virtual friendships in the blogosphere, but I did. As I stated before my blogging began because of politics. My very first blog experience began with a local political blogger. Leftwing's blog will always hold a special place with me I have found other special places I like to visit through him, one being The Flypaper Theory . Because of one of the contributors at TFT, Christian Progressive Liberal , I discovered many African Americans who blog. From the words of bloggers you see their character and virtual friendships are formed.

There came a time regarding politics in my city an issue I was having, one of my virtual friends let me know that he had my back and so would the others. When I called on him by email from his response and action, I knew he had my back. I will never forget that, I will also never forget the post I saw on one of their sites wishing me well once. I knew eventually I would meet my favorite local bloggers, Newscoma and CPL one day.

I thought that day would be when I came to one of their bloggers event, social event, or a political event. Each time I decided to attend one of the announced events, my illness was exacerbated and I would not attend. The highlight of my week was when I was feeling good enough to attend Congressman Steve Cohen's open house to congratulate Randy Wade on his promotion. My virtual world and real world collided. I met Freedonian, the blogger I mentioned who had my back during an issue I was having in my city. He is not blogging much now because he is writing a book, but I check in because I love reading his writing.

It was an honor to meet him in person and surprised that he was honored to meet me. I truly enjoyed our chance encountered and the cherry on top of the end of my week was when he called me Thursday while at a social function with other bloggers I consider virtual friends wanted to speak to me after he was telling them he met me. I had the pleasure of talking with Newscoma and LWC. It was great to speak to LWC after leaving my rant on his site Thursday morning assuming he was this obnoxious person on another blog because I was given the opportunity to verbally apologize for my rant. In my heart I did not believe that was him, but I was blinded by that word and assumed it to be him.

Politics was the reason I start blogging, but I have discovered bloggers who blog about multiple sclerosis and other issues. I might not ever meet any of my fellow MS bloggers, but they have become part of my virtual world. The information they put on their blogs is enjoyable and helpful to read. They also can relate as I can to blog post that only a fellow MS’ers understand. They all have fantastic blogs, but I have to give Merelyme the award for her thought provoking blog posts.