tomorrow i will meet a lot of new friends. they might or might not be facebook friends but they are part of my new years resolution of last year and this year. last year i endeavored to meet all 325 of the facebook friends i had. i reached ninety percent of my friends.
the other ten percent? some of them moved during the year, some of them didn't respond to my requests to meet, some of them became too famous to be bothered, and some . . . weren't even people at all!
this year’s resolution is to take what i have learned about friendship, about travel, about anxiety and about doing things even when you’re a little bit afraid and i’m going to find twelve facebook friends who want to meet me! i already have two meetings set up which means that i’m on target for this year’s resolution.
tomorrow i will meet a whole group devoted to anxiety and panic attacks. these are people who know what it feels like to be me! they are the anxiety and panic attack support group of bolingbrook and i will learn a lot from them, i’m sure. they meet on the first and third wednesdays of every month and give each other encouragement. oddly, i’m a little anxious just thinking about going there–it will be dark and i don’t like to drive at night, there will be people i don’t know, i’ll be expected (or i’ll expect myself) to be witty. i will fail at that last one.
but i have spent so much of the last two weeks sitting in my house reading messages from facebook friends, many of whom share my difficulties, that i know that i have lost practice at leaving. i need to go.
i need to get my john wayne on!
arlynnpresser 
January 18th, 2012 at 1:20 am
Arlynn,
Thank you for meeting with the group. I will be there too and look forward to meeting you. Please don’t worry about us. Though I don’t attend all meetings I know the people are fantastic. It is totally casual, so bring some coffee or tea and let’s have some fun.
January 18th, 2012 at 1:38 am
if i have a panic attack and can’t enter the room i hope you’ll be the one in the parking lot understanding.
January 18th, 2012 at 10:03 pm
Absolutely!
January 19th, 2012 at 6:29 am
Arlynn,
I was a pleasure to meet you at our group meeting last night and I hope you enjoyed sharing your story with others. You are a true inspiration and I cannot thank you enough for volunteering to help out!
Jack Benton
January 19th, 2012 at 10:42 am
thank you so much and i appreciate the invitation! please hook me up with anybody that you think i could be of use to!
January 22nd, 2012 at 3:31 pm
You got an actual A at being witty! It was fun and informative.
January 22nd, 2012 at 5:27 pm
thanks so much and you were such a good friend to be there! i was only sorry that i got there so late!