View from the Outside…

Amy left a comment the other day in my “Call for Help” post that got me thinking. You see, there is this whole Inner Circle Syndrome (ICS) going around and … well, it bugs me.

I’m associated with an inner circle that I haven’t felt a part of for months. Sure, the people I’m lumped with are my friends, and I treasure them dearly. But I have always been one of those people that has friends in every group. You know how in high school there were 100 cliques? Yeah, I liked to have friends in all of them. It has always worked well for me too, because I always have had friends to turn to when I’m in need of one. Remember those high school days if you ticked one person off in your clique of friends and then they told all of the other clique members not to like you? Yeah, I just moved on to my other friends. I don’t play those games well at all. Ironically, it normally bugged the person that was mad at me so much that they would try to patch things up. Funny how humans work, isn’t it?

But back to my babbling point here. I have friends near and far in many different circles. I am friends with the supposed “A-List” (that’s a rant for a whole other day.) I am friends with bloggers here in Houston. I am friends with war bloggers, gay bloggers, tech bloggers, geek bloggers, pretty bloggers, mom bloggers, dad bloggers, just regular bloggers, not so regular bloggers, and people that don’t blog at all. I have never looked at a comment from anyone as “I don’t know them so they aren’t worthy.” No, quite the opposite. Some of my nearest and dearest friends I have met were because of the comments they left behind here.

I’ve been very nostalgic lately. I was telling Jennifer last week that I was in a funk. At first it felt like I had the “No one likes me blues”. Then I got a grip on reality and realized that isn’t the case at all. I have had no luck on the job front lately, so that leaves me quite melancholy. But in the end, that wasn’t it either.

Then it hit me as I had a long talk with Kathy the other night (Long girlie talks are so much fun!) Looking back over the past year as I am prone to do – it is Dec. 30th after all – I realized that friendships come and go and change in this cyberworld. I’ve lost touch – thanks to work, being busy, not having time – with some people that I truly adore. Others have lost touch with me. Such is life, and you can’t always change it. However, I’m going to try.

So, what are your thoughts on this? Do you suffer from fear of the ICS and think that I’ll ignore you if you’re not cool enough? I promise … that’s the furthest thing from the truth. Every new person I meet through this site is just a friend waiting in the wings. I’ve met some truly incredible people thanks to the Internet. People that have helped me in times of need, helped with tasks small and large. People that have lent me an ear when I needed someone to talk to. People who have laughed with me. Cried with me. Just been there for me. Who knows – the next person could be you?

In all of this, I know one thing that I will stay true to – I write what I write here for me first and foremost. It’s not about the traffic. It’s not about being noticed. (Well, unless I’m playing a game like Blogwhore or Big Blogger where I need the links!) It’s really about me & you. Yes, YOU. You there, reading this. An individual, a person – a friend. And if your viewpoint is different than mine, that’s ok. Like I said before, diversity is what makes the world go around. I like it when people challenge my way of thinking!

It’s time for a change around here. It may be subtle, it may be huge. I don’t know yet, I just know that I need to shake things up a bit. Hope you will stay along for the ride!

So, what are YOUR thoughts on all of this? Come on, you can tell me…

Addendum: Just to be clear, I never said I didn’t like the circle of people I’m often lumped in with. I just meant that I like a lot of people outside that circle too. Circles happen naturally – you are normally drawn to those like you and like similar people. Also, I never said nor claimed to be on an A-List anywhere, and as a number of people can back me up on, I’ve laughed whenever people tell me I am. I am nowhere close, nor do I want to be. I just want to live, let live, and be. I mainly just wanted everyone that travels through without commenting to know that they are welcome to comment any time. That’s why the link is there! (Edited at 8:21pm.)

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