This whole social media thing is kinda crazy. I did it before I knew what it was. Years ago, I was at an open mic event in downtown Fort Myers in a hookah bar with cushions all over the floor. The emcee, now a good friend of mine, made an announcement asking for participants’ email addresses and MySpace usernames. It was the first time I heard about MySpace. I went home and tried it out. I spent far too much time. It was silly. But the most important thing is I was turned on to this easy and dynamic way to get in touch with people.

Driven to distraction

Later, I became amazed at how many people came out of the woodwork through social media platforms. Friends I had written off “friended” me on Facebook, and kind of brought me home to a place I had run away from. Suddenly, people I thought had moved in and out of my life showed they were there all along.

So at this point, I’m starting to see the power in all this stuff. I used it with some good success to build name recognition for my husband’s business. We showed up for TweetUps, where we built a great new community of friends and business contacts around us. We got involved with Social Media Club Southwest Florida and an awesome fundraiser called Twestival, which raised a couple thousand for Pace Center for Girls. I dabbled in affiliate marketing. I got an important job offer…

I got results. However, “getting out there” has also been a bit of a distraction – I suffered a traumatic life event about five years ago that turned into a sustained process that still hasn’t been resolved. A psychologist even told me, “You’re like a soldier who’s returned from war.” My online life has been a chance to show a brave face. But now I’ve found another way that “getting out there” can bring me back to myself.

A breadcrumb trail

The first friend I made in Fort Myers more than eight years ago (at one of those open mic events) is a brilliant poet and a beautiful person. Today I found out about this thing he’s doing at EditRed. He calls himself the Suicide Kid and he uses a mug shot for his profile photo, but it’s a front (sorry, Ryun, but you know it’s true).

It made me realize – I’ve been doing this social media thing, and to a great extent, leaving my passions out of it. So I followed my friend’s lead, and signed up for an account at that writer’s networking site. I did a search for others of that type and came across Read Write Poem And I felt a weight lifting.

I’ve had a few poems published in a few different places. Two can be found online at Nthposition, an online literary magazine out of the UK. But that was between 2005 and 2007 and I haven’t done much with my work since then. Now that I know I can read Ryun’s work whenever I want to, I’m also inspired to post some of my work, get it “out there.”

Inertia can be a real presence in my life. The community and accountability offered by these writer’s sites offer me an opportunity to convert that inertia into the “in motion” kind, instead of the alternative.

Have you found an online network that serves as a channel for your passions? Has “getting out there” provided a way to bring you back to yourself?

By the way, Ryun’s got this book he’d like to publish. If you know anyone in the biz…well, you know how to find me.