So, this thing happened a couple of weeks ago. I celebrated my birthday. Which, coincidentally, happens to fall one day after my husband John’s birthday. We’re a day and a year apart.
Part of the fun of celebrating birthdays for me is all the birthday wishes I get every year. The vast majority come through Facebook, with a smattering of phone calls, texts, and Facetime well-wishes (three precisely, one from each of our out-of-state children and their families).
I’ve noticed through the years that consistently 10 percent of the people who are my Facebook friends post birthday wishes on my timeline. In real numbers, that’s 2,000+ Facebook friends, or roughly 250 birthday posts.
It made me wonder the other day. How did I ever accumulate that many friends on social media? The vast majority are people I actually know, not just strangers who sent friend requests (that’s more of an Instagram thing, but that’s a whole other story).
This is the conclusion that I came to. I’ve done a lot of stuff in my life, and I’ve met a lot of people. Through the marvel of social media, I’ve been able to stay in contact with them, or reconnect with the ones I hadn’t seen in years.
I created a list of where I’ve met people in my life. Maybe some of you can relate…
- Friends/neighbors/classmates/teachers from the three cities I lived in for the majority of my growing-up years: Antigo, Wis., Baudette, Minn., Appleton, Wis. (That’s three high schools BTW, Antigo High School, Lake of the Woods High School, Appleton High School-West. Let’s see who can top that.)
- Work: ShopKo, Secura, executive manager with Tupperware, product testing for 35 years for Kimberly-Clark Corp., the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TPN, Enagic (KangenWisconsin.com), B.A.N.K., various newspapers including The Business News and The Compass. (Add to that John’s work friends.)
- Church: fellow parishioners, priests, Bible study, and friends I’ve made at various retreats through the years.
- Modeling and acting, including 12 years performing in community theater, and currently working with Belle Talent.
- Family (parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, cousins, godparents). My family is somewhat on the small size, but when you marry someone with 11 brothers and sisters, your family grows exponentially overnight.
- Folks we’ve met through our children: their friends, their friends’ parents and siblings, their teachers, and all the children that John and I coached through the years (softball, flag football, soccer, volleyball).
- Being involved in sports and other athletic endeavors: softball, soccer, running, biking, volleyball, golf, and now pickleball.
- Neighbors old and new.
- Volunteer work. I spent a number of years volunteering for a local crisis-pregnancy clinic, and, with four children in Catholic schools from pre-school through grad school, there were plenty of volunteer opportunities.
- Friends in general that we’ve met everywhere, including on our travels, even some famous ones (who have way more friends/followers on social media than I do).
- My fellow authors, a subset that I’m happy to say is growing substantially as the years roll along. Hand in hand with that are fans of my books who’ve become friends. How gratifying is that?
In the words of Clarence the angel in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, “Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.” That being the case, I would say that not only is my life wonderful, but it’s been pretty successful as well. Thank you for being my friend!