I have spent the past several days in Nashville at the Blissdom Conference and while I head home today, I am both glad to be returning to my family and sad because I am leaving a lot of friends behind. This weekend has been one where I have ranged the spectrum of emotions – from complete, unabashed, rolling on the floor with laughter JOY to heartbreaking sadness as MckMama shared the story of her son, Stellan. In between there was hope, migraines (thank you, Mother Nature. No REALLY, you shouldn’t have), exhaustion, and at times, a feeling of being completely overwhelmed and trying to just BE in the moment.
I follow a lot of people on Twitter. I read their tweets and their blogs and comment on their Facebook status updates. I know their lives by their words – and then suddenly, so many of those people are under one roof and it’s kind of an awesome thing. You see someone across the room and think, “Hey, that person looks familiar” – check out their name tag, and when it hits you that the person standing in front of you is @WhoeverThatPersonMightBeInThisInstant, it’s a rush – a huge sensation of, “You’re REALLY here.” Suddenly, imaginary internet people become very real. The moment when someone goes from “that person who blogs” to “the woman I shared caramel corn with” or “the one who rocked out on karaoke” or “the one that made me laugh so hard my abs hurt” – THAT MOMENT is why I’m here.
There will be another post later, one where I tell you how awesome the sponsors are (they are!), and how I think that Alli and Barbara really outdid themselves (they did!), and how I didn’t sleep very much for several days and worried my lovely roommates (true story!), but… not yet.
Right now, I’m still in the moment. After filling my days so completely, I slept hard last night and I wake up knowing that while I’m so glad to be returning home to my family (a little less enthused about that airplane part), I am going to miss a lot of people a whole lot.
Where You’ll Find Me