This week, I’m celebrating my birthday. It’s not a particular milestone this year so nothing particular planned in terms of celebrations, aside from some time with friends and a nice dinner with my significant other. In recent years, my birthday hasn’t been that important of an event for me: could be that my introvert self doesn’t like being the centre of attention, or how the date lines up with a busy time of year for me, work-wise (thank you, March 31st fiscal year ends and associated deadlines). That being said, I do enjoy hearing from friends and family when the date rolls around, even if it’s just a quick “Happy Birthday” Facebook post.
Which leads me to my intention for this next spin around the sun – to keep in touch more often with the far-flung network of individuals whom I’m grateful to call my friends. The last couple of years saw a number of changes and challenges in my life, and one regret I hold from that time is that I over-indulged my introvert inclinations and withdrew when I should have been reaching out more. This intention is not a 180 that will lead to me becoming a complete social butterfly, but more consciously reaching out (and responding) when there’s the opportunity, even if it’s just an evening text to say “Hey, how goes?”.
Now, I’m not regularly on Facebook and I don’t see that changing, so expect most of those connections to come through more individual or small-group messaging1. I am open to old-fashion letter writing as well (though I’ll have to get some practice in first to make them at least somewhat legible) and real-time chats are always great, be they in-person or online. Regardless of which way we converse, I hope to connect soon!
- The messaging apps I have set up on my phone include Messages (SMS/iMessage), Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord. Oh, and email if you want to count that. I am willing to consider additional platforms, but at some point it gets a little silly. ↩