Confession

I have a confession.

I have never, not ever, been on a roller coaster.

It’s true.

I hate the whole idea of it.

I don’t like the idea of waiting in line and getting anxious for the ride. I have no desire to intentionally make myself scared, I don’t want to willfully make my stomach turn into knots with the ups and downs, and I certainly do not need to walk away from the experience and say  with validation, “I did it!”.

Here’s another confession: I had every one of those feelings happen to me in a short period of time without riding a roller coaster. And I chose to make that happen.

I went to Blissdom Canada 2014.

I knew what I was getting into because I attended in 2013. I knew it would rip me apart, emotionally and mentally. I knew I would have the highest highs and the lowest lows. I also knew they would combine themselves together and create an experience like no other.

I knew it would be hard. Damn hard. And the closer the date got to going, the more I wanted to chicken out. I tried to prepare myself. And I was more prepared this year since I had an idea of what to expect. That made it harder. Knowing what to expect made it harder.

What made it easier was giving myself the liberty to experience it all. And having a pretty amazing group of friends attending made it less scary. I had spent the last year chatting with people online, reading their blogs, tweeting with them on a weekly basis. I knew a lot about some people and I had never met them in person.

The experience of meeting someone you have befriended online in person is like no other. Being able to ask a fellow blogger “how is everyone at home?” or giving another fellow blogger a hug because I promised I would online, or being told by a blogger friend how much I “get” her…it’s incredible.

These are my some of my most amazing friends. Some more personal than others, some more raw than others, all in one way or another very real. It doesn’t matter how we first connected or where we chat to each other the most. What matters is connecting to people across Canada with a single purpose of writing with passion in order to leave a mark.

This is Blissdom Canada.

So I guess you can say I like to ride a metaphorical roller coaster, once a year, in Mississauga.

My kids drew these. They were waiting for me when I returned from Blissdom Canada. I couldn’t have been more proud.