Talking to People Online and Why I Sometimes Don't

If you've been blogging for a while (or, hey, maybe not very long), you know how important it is to connect and interact with readers and other bloggers online.  Whether that interaction is through comments on posts, tweets, emails, whatever.  Basically, you want to be able to form a relationship and a connection with other people in this awesome community!  Not only is it helpful for spreading the word of your blog, it's also a great way to make new friends with similar interests and find people that will support and cheer you on, just like you will for them!

It is awesome, Dean.

Now, I've been blogging for a while now (thought not very consistently recently, I'll admit), and I still find it really difficult to connect with people over the internet and through this blog.  I'm not a really outgoing person outside of the internet and I feel like my shy tendencies tend to carry over into this.  It's very easy for me to doubt and question myself when reaching out to other people.  What if they don't want to talk?  What if I come off sounding rude or unintelligent?  What if they don't get this joke?  They probably have tons of reader friends that will reply much better than I will.  

All of those thoughts and doubts make it very challenging for me to put myself out there and open up to people.  While I've been very grateful to make a few friends and have lovely people that often come here and comment on my posts, I feel like I'm in the way of myself.  I'm my own worst enemy, holding myself back from making more friends on here.  

Basically, what I'm trying to get at is that I don't like being this way!  I want to be able to connect and form lasting friendships with all of you because you're all so awesome!  One of my goals for this year is to worry less about how someone may or may not perceive me.  I'm going to try to let myself open up more because I really do want to connect with you guys more and, hopefully, you'd be up for doing the same thing!