Online Friends

A year ago, I didn't realize how much I'd depend on the friendship and advice from people I've never met in person. It stared when I got involved with the WW online community. I found a whole group of amazing people that genuinely want to see me succeed. As with any community, there are some people I really click with because I share the same beliefs or have the same goals. Then, there are some that I support because I'm a caring person and I know they need it but don't have that "friend" connection with it. Then, there are those select few that I think I'd be bff's with if they didn't live so far away (you probably know who you are).

I think the value of these relationships is often under estimated by those that haven't been there. If people can understand that you can meet your future spouse on match.com, then why can't they understand that you could meet a friend on WW.com, You Tube, or Blogger? (or, at one time, in Dave's case World of Warcraft) If it wasn't for these online relationships that I developed, I would have abandoned my weight loss goals months ago. Now that I'm on a more personal journey and am shifting away from focusing on weight loss, I post more here and less on WW. I like to be able to say "bad" words and not worry about the censorship of words like crap, and beaver (not that I've ever used the word beaver in a sentence outside of demonstrating WW censors). I've met a few knew people here who are great. However, it's those faithful few that help to keep me going in the right direction.

There is something special about the unbiased advice I get from you. It gives me a different perspective on things. Sometimes, it makes me stop, reverse a little, and say "she had a great point. that's what I am looking for." Not to mention, it's kind of nice knowing people with similar beliefs and knowing people who understand where I'm coming from.

So, to all of my faithful, and wise friends (now 11 known readers):