Love Thursday

My Love Thursday is dedicated to my Ch'Know group. :)

There would be no me if there were no them.

The group originally started as just a way for me to be able to change my tag, and when I had a store, I figured I'd send out updates through it. But I also wanted it to be a place where people felt like they could chat. Who remembers the days of "OMG FASHCON OOPS!!!" At the time my group started, there was just this huge thing about people chatting in groups. Even now, there are all kinds of rules and stuff about group chats. I wanted people to feel comfortable. I'm pretty shy, so I figured maybe if some people chatted in my group, I would also feel comfortable enough to chat. It took about a month after making the group that anyone actually started talking in it. :) What can I say? Most of the people who joined it at that time did so because they were also shy. But once we started talking...we couldn't shut up.

The group has gone through changes over the past year and a half. People have come in, people have left. We've laughed, fought, cried, annoyed each other, celebrated successes, and loved each other. We tease each other like brothers & sisters, act offended while laughing like crazy, and go back to having fun. We try to be supportive in any adventure, from designing to blogging to real world things like jobs and classes, that people undertake. We cry on each others' shoulders, and offer to cut people who upset us. We can be a little overwhelming at times, but honestly, I think it's like a family. They are probably the funniest, most talented, sweetest group of people that you'd ever be lucky enough to meet. There are some nights when they make me laugh SO hard, I almost can't breathe. Conversations can be deep or light or crazy, but they are always interesting. Only twice in the group's history have people been asked to leave or removed from the group because they did something that the rest of the group could not get over, and twice it broke my heart when it happened. Because I genuinely care about each person that I invite in. They are pieces of my heart. [The only exception to this rule is usually when a bf/gf has been invited in and is removed a few days later. lol ] There is almost no one who has left the group that I would not invite back in a heartbeat if they asked. No explanations would even be necessary. Even when they leave, they stay with me in my heart.

There is almost nothing I wouldn't do for my group. They have talked me down from anxiety attacks so many times without ever knowing it. They have kept me going, kept me strong. There are no words in my vocabulary that could ever express what they mean to me. :)

I don't have a current picture of the group. It would be almost impossible for all of us to be in the same place at the same time, which has always been a sad fact. But their pictures show up from time to time in here, their blogs are in my blogroll, their quotes show up on the side of this blog or in my profile.

Thank you, my friends. Thank you for just being yourselves and allowing me to share in your Second Life. You are completely loved. :)

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
-Aristotle