BlogU Taught Me About Myself

I Found Myself at BlogU | WIRL Project

I’m sure that many others will blog about the amazingness that was Blog U 2015 this past weekend. Blog U was a great conference which packed about a month of information into 48 hours. I got excellent information which will improve TND, help us expand our reach, AND help us chart the next step beyond. I highly recommend it for any blogger looking to up their game. But I’m not going to talk about any of that.

What I Learned from Blog U

Rather, I’m going to talk about what Blog U taught me about myself:

1) I’m not only too old to stay in a dorm, but also too old to eat in a cafeteria. My stomach just can’t handle dining hall food any more. My eyes won’t even allow me to put most of it on my plate. Especially not “vegan meat.” Of course, I did still manage to eat the cupcakes.

2) I’m too socially anxious to play well with others. (Ok, I already knew this). Networking events for me were like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube blindfolded while suffering from malaria. After the first few minutes I began fantasizing that the room would suddenly be seized by militants, which would certainly decrease my anxiety levels.

The dining room felt like Middle School all over again. If I didn’t see an open seat at a table populated mainly by the 6 or 7 folks I “know,” I made a beeline for a small table off to the side where no one would notice the losers (as Momus was my ever companion) eating alone. Worst of all, I skipped the headline “Middle School Dance” entirely in order to avoid my deep-seated costume trauma and the possibility that I would have no one to talk to.

I am of course regretting all of the above now. There were so many amazing people that I failed to meet, and so many missed connections. I’m now determined to either A) never go to another conference again as long as I live, or B) finally get that treatment for social phobia that I’ve been avoiding my whole life. Let’s be honest: probably A – and that’s only because C) never leave the fucking house again is likely implausible.

3) I have Nervdar – the ability to spot another anxious soul at as much as 80 yards away. These kindred souls (you know who you are) provided me an oasis, as I was able to approach them almost like a genuine member of the human race.

4) I still have no idea what I want to do when I grow up. I went from session to session creating different lives for myself. One session convinced me that I wanted to move from blogging into journalism, the next that I would be a really kick-ass copywriter, and yet another that I really should be writing a book. I went to dinner Saturday evening with my head spinning as I tried to figure out what path I want to move down with my writing. I have a feeling that this is going to take more than a little time to figure out. At least I know that Idon’t want to be a data analyst. Oops.

5) I want to be Jen Mann. That is all.

6) I will never master Pinterest. I just don’t have the time or graphical savvy to do what it takes to make me Pinterest Perfect.  I guess I’ll just have to settle for Pinterest Passable.

 

These are my personal lessons learned. I can guarantee that everyone who went to this event has her own set of lessons. I can also just about guarantee that none of them are as pathetic as mine.

 

*This WIRL was originally published on The Next Deslusion

 

 

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About the Author…

The Next Delusion | WIRL ProjectCassandra is in her mid-forties with two children. She works as a research
consultant and data analyst despite her love of words and deep mistrust of
all things numeric. Her writing has been featured on The Erma Bombeck
Writer’s Workshop, Great Moments in Parenting, and Project Underblog. She
blogs with her partner in crime, Momus, at www.TheNextDelusion.com. She can also be found on Facebook, Twitter (@TheNextDelusion), and Pinterest.

 

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