Little Did I Know

This post, coming after a long hiatus from blogging comes in the wake of a minor awakening that I experienced this year. It has been a year of changes and adjusting to change is not always pleasant. However, with change comes new discoveries and I have had a few of those this year.

This was the year I discovered Twitter. I must admit that I was a reluctant participant in the whole social media playground, being the bordering-on-paranoia sort of introverted old-school type of personality that I am. Putting myself out there in this vacuum called "twitter" just didn't seem like the best idea.

Of course, I work for LexisNexis - heading the Marketing Department, of all things! We are encouraged to innovate and my boss constantly tells us to "get creative". My counterparts in other countries were raving about it and my curiosity got the better of me. I started exploring and tentatively joined the kids in the playground, not knowing what I was doing but determined to figure things out by the end of the journey. If I wanted to figure this out, I couldn't send other kids to play on my behalf - I had to kick off my shoes and play in the sand - so I did.

I embarked on twitter with the intent of getting better at my job but little did I know how it would both humble and inspire me on a personal level. With 140 characters, mere individuals - the man (and woman, of course!) on the street articulates his opinion and other men on the street amplify this opinion. The utter lack of inhibition displayed in this exercise is both terrifying and liberating at the same time. I absolutely love it.

It has heightened my awareness of all things present. I realize how singularly oblivious I was to what was not immediately in my line of sight. If I was not in the picture, I didn't care to know about it. It was a selfish, limiting and inward-looking existence and I was perfectly happy stressing over the smallest things.

I began following people who interested me and I started caring about issues which affected more people - not just me. I formed opinions about the issues that mattered to me and I voiced them. I gained entirely new perspectives on many issues, met people who motivate and inspire me and received validation from people who liked what I had to say.

I am still on this awesome journey and I still appreciate the lessons I learn from it - one of which is the fact that my opinions matter and that I should translate my thoughts to the written word. Who knows, someone may just be inspired by them.