Your comfort zone has nothing to offer.

We all have a comfort zone, a safe place where we feel settled and at ease. For most bloggers, this place is precisely the virtual world. This blurred space where feelings and experiences are spilled out into the open, where every word we write is carefully (or not so much) crafted and where all it takes to go back in time is one ‘delete button’.

My comfort zone has pretty much always been writing. I can express myself better, I have the time to reflect on the point I am trying to make, I can afford to take a step back to consider a different point of view and explore it further.

Original photo by Jmiller291, CC BY2.0. Adapted by Writer’s Caravan

In social situations, I am by no means the quiet one, nor the loudest one. I don’t feel ill at ease and am good at spontaneous repartee. Over the last couple of years (working at an airport has certainly helped), I have learned to approach strangers and strike up a conversation with them. I can walk into a party where I don’t know anybody and with a little patience, find a way to fit in.

But there is always a but…

I can do it all, but only after going through an inevitable stage where a wave of nervous anticipation washes over me, coupled with a million questions I can’t answer and a million scenarios I can’t explore.

A year ago, I had written a few articles for an online design publication. I had gone to a breakfast/press release for the launch of the Lina Bo Bardi bowl chair in Clerkenwell and there, I was invited to the cocktail party in the evening. I had accepted straight-away and spent an hour getting ready. The dress was on, the make-up was on, even the heels were on.

And then I chickened out.

Annual Bloggers Bash at the British Library, London

A few months ago, the first Annual Bloggers Bash was held in London and I wasn’t going to let this happen again. And I’m proud to say I did not. I got to meet some amazing, like-minded people in the flesh and no amount of reading, commenting or tweeting could compare.

Truth is, your comfort zone has nothing to offer but disappointment you didn’t step out of it. 

And I would like to officially thank Sacha for organising this event (a second even has been scheduled on June 11!) and Geoff, Hugh and Ali (who came all the way from Ireland!!!) for co-hosting/co-organising it.

And so we met, we laughed and we talked. Maybe we were shy and maybe we were anxious but it is the things that scare you the most… We had lunch and some fully-deserved awards were given out to Suzie (‘Most Inspiring Blog’ and ‘Services to Bloggers’), Lucy (Funniest Blogger), Sarah (Informative Blogger), Concierge Librarian (Best Dressed) and last but not least Chris (Best Overall Blog).

Please do check them out. And come to the next one. (That’s a mild order)

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Thanks for reading.
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