Make it Happen, #29: Meet a Blog Buddy in Real Life

by - 7:18 PM

November 22nd: OMG I'm going to Slovenia! I'm going to meet Jerneja from Sparkly Kid!
December 10th: I'm so freaking excited!
January 17th: This is going to be so awesome.
February 14th: I can't wait till May.
March 5th: Almost almost May.
April 28th: Two days away from May.
May 1st: Shit, what if we don't get along? What if I'm a disappointment to her?
May 3rd: Well, no going back now...

From Envy's Make it Happen List
#29: Meet a blog buddy in real life
Status: Awesomeness achieved

There's nothing more exciting and terrifying than meeting an online friend offline for the very first time. So when I sat at the bas of the Preseren statue on Preseren square, I was torn between fight, flight and total excitement. Sure I'd talked to Jerneja plenty of times on Twitter and through comments, but... you never know, right? As long as the internet exists, catfishes and the chance of being stood up will be around.
One o'clock, the moment we'd meet, came and went. A few doom scenarios crossed my mind. My heart was beating like crazy when I received a text from Jerneja, saying she'd come a little later on. Mere minutes later, she was standing in front of me. It was the most surreal thing ever.

What do you say to someone who's never heard your voice, yet knows all your stories from the past years? Apparently you keep repeating how awkward you and the situation both are. At least that's what I did. There was something about the situation that my brain couldn't quite handle and that something was this: I was not looking at a picture on a screen, I was interacting with a real human. That switch from online to offline is not an easy one to make, but once I'd made it, it was awesome.

Jerneja and I went to get a drink on top of Neboticnik Skyscraper, talked about whatever came to mind, then took the first blog buddy selfie of our lives. I've got to say that it felt pretty awesome.

Een foto die is geplaatst door Jerneja (@sparklykid_) op

In the days that followed, we saw Captain America: Civil War together, along with a few of Jerneja's friends. It was my first time watching a Marvel movie with die hard Marvel fans. It was great, even though Slovene subtitles sometimes distracted me from the perfection that's Captain America.
Later on we took a mini road trip to Bled, where we rented a row boat. Now imagine that: two bloggers in a row boat. That's where the weirdness gets in too. And of course the selfies to send to our other blog buddies.
On Friday I had to say goodbye to Jerneja. It was awkward again. I'm not good at saying goodbye, mostly because I'm trying to contain my emotions. I couldn't focus on saying goodbye, I was trying too hard to think of ways to keep seeing my blog buddy and meet others like Kathie from A Sea Change and Kanra from The Lunar Descent too. I was sad to say goodbye to Jerneja, but so grateful that we'd been given the chance to meet both online and in real life.
If you ever get the chance to meet one of your blog buddies in real life, grab it! It might be awkward at first, but it'll turn out to be awesome.

Have you ever met any of your blog buddies in real life? Would you be as awkward as I was?
Stay Awesome!

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6 Fellow Ramblers

  1. When I first saw your tweet about going to Slovenia and meeting Jerneja, I was super excited because if not me, atleast someone from our blog buddies group finally gets to meet and that is just a wonderful thing. It leaves us with the prospect that all of us could meet up one day too and just chill! Can't wait for that day :D

    -Kathie K
    A Sea Change

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    1. I can't wait for that day either! One day we'll work something out so we can all meet, I'm sure of that!

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  2. That is so awesome that you got to do that! I'm happy you had fun! I haven't met a blog buddy in real life but I realy want too.

    Nabila // Hot Town Cool Girl

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    1. It was one of the most awesome things I did in my life! I really hope you get the chance to meet a blog buddy too :)

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  3. You are a brave soul. I personally would have NEVER did that. Lol I'm the type of person who intentionally makes friends across the globe so i wouldn't have to meet them. Like a couple of months back i had a complete panic attack when a friend from Austria told me she was coming to the USA over the summer. It's not like i'm hiding anything, but the thought of meeting people scares me. I'm proud of you for being a brave soul and meeting a fellow blogger :)
    ( By the way i'm just looking at cool blogs, so i can put them in my June Newsletter.)

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    1. Haha, I make friends across the globe too but I have exactly the opposite reason to do that. I honestly want to meet my online friends :D Believe me, the thought of meeting new people scares me too, but it's something I had to get over and just do. The risk of being catfished isn't that big in the blogospere but it was still in the back of my mind. That was the only thing that made this a little scary :P
      Good luck with finding interesting blogs for your newsletter :)

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