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Welcome to the neighborhood!

By Jess
One of the disadvantages of moving away from friends and family is that it becomes somewhat difficult and time-consuming to keep in touch with everyone. Obvious, I know, but the source of some consternation for me.

I laid awake in bed last night thinking of all the people I haven't emailed and how much has happened here that I feel obligated to inform my friends about -- home repairs, new discoveries, funny stories. Usually, I reach a point in late correspondence that I feel the need to write a very long email -- in instances of extreme guilt, actual snal mail -- to show that I do think about that person and to fill them in on the goings-on in my own life. (What are friends for, anyway, if not to take some interest in the day-to-day activities?) This usually only has the effect of further delaying correspondence, as evidenced by the three-letter waiting list.

When in close proximity, I feel friends share general information as a matter of course. However, if I emailed everyone with the kind of regularity I might say hello to a neighbor when we see each other across the yard, I'd be something of a nusiance. It then occurred to me that I could try a blog as a less intrusive way of keeping friends and family up to date. If a long-lost friend gets back in touch with me, I can send them to my online letter of a blog and they can choose how much "filling in" they need. Other friends might find it interesting to simply check in occasionally when surfing the web to see what we're up to.

The benefits as I see them:

TO YOU
  • You're empowered to decide when and how much you'd like to hear from me.
  • You'll get a lot more of the day-to-day information that I'd probably otherwise think to email everyone.
  • The emails I will still send can be more focused on our own personal connections.
TO ME
  • I hope this proves a faster, more efficient news-delivery system -- no more forgetting what I've told to whom!
  • I can send personal emails that concentrate more fully on our unique relationships.
Please join me for this experiment in virtual community. I've glad you're part of it!

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