With apologies to the song, "One Eyed One Horned Flying Purple People Eater", this blog post title has been stuck in my head for weeks, so I figured I'd better write it so I can stop singing the damn thing in my head. And since I've been a writing fool all day for work, might as well do some non-work related writing as well.
Yesss, I hear a few of you saying "Write your book!". I will. I promise. And heck, might even do some more writing of that tonight, but I think stepping away from the laptop for a little while to get a breather from writing might be better for tonight. Give ye olde typing fingers a rest.
Anyhoo... this post. I've been networking up a storm and that's been fun, but I got to singing this title to myself when I was returning home from one of the networking events the other night because I was thinking about how I'm totally an introverted people-person and that just makes no sense at all to me.
I mean, thank heavens I AM a people person because it would be insanely stupid to go to networking events and just stand in a corner by myself without talking to anyone. Defeats the purpose quite a bit. But even just a few years ago, there is no way in hell I would have been okay at networking events where the idea is to walk up to someone you don't know and introduce yourself and talk about yourself. GAAAH. Must run and hide and would have.
But, meeting new people actually jazzes me. Maybe it's the writer in me, but I love hearing their stories and finding out about people. And I guess it shows because I've made some good professional contacts at these events and heck, I love going to the events and seeing that my "buds" are there and love hearing about where one woman went for ice cream that day and where another woman is going on vacation. They're fun to talk to and we're building professional relationships through these conversations, and that's kind of what it's all about.
Of course, some of the women I've been meeting I could see becoming friends with, too. But would I email them to meet up? GASP. That's where the introvert part of me comes screaming out loud. Seriously. Are you on crack? Actually ask someone to hang out? That's just crazy talk! They could say "no".
Seriously, this is how my mind works, folks, from past years of having insanely low self-confidence. Even though I love talking to people and have great conversations with them at networking events or heck, anywhere else, it takes a large amount of courage for me to actually say "Hey, want to grab coffee?" unless I'm certain of what the answer will be.
Friends I've known and hung out with for years? Totally fine with dashing an email to make plans because I know them and know that if a day doesn't work out, there's always another day. No big. So why doesn't the same brain that knows that's totally fine to get a "I can't that day" understand that it's exactly the same when someone I don't know all that well could say the same thing. Knock it off, brain.
So, hey, if any of you reading this know me in person (and good god, let's hope none of the people I'm networking with ever find this blog and figure out it's me considering all the other stuff I've posted here) and I've never said "Hey, let's hang out", don't take it personally. It's not you, it really is me. And, hell, I probably would love to hang out/grab that coffee, but because of the introverted side, it takes longer than it should.
And with that, I'm going to go actually take my own advice here and dash an email off to a woman I've become friends with through these networking events to schedule a coffee before the next one. Maybe...
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