Facebook Flashback

While using up all of my remaining vacation time between Christmas and the New Year, I was convinced to open an account on facebook. Ironic, since just a few days prior I had completed a trade association survey asking if I used any networking websites where the answer was “No”.

So after providing the obligatory personal information—my name, email address, and preferred password—I was now a member of facebook. What to do next? Well look up your brothers and sisters who think you are lame for not being on facebook ages ago. That meant sending ‘friend requests’ to them so they can acknowledge they know me. Thankfully we are on speaking terms and they didn’t press the “Ignore” button. Voila, I had my first few “friends”.

Then I checked out their pages and added some fun applications – Fan of Lakers and TV’s The Office I found on their pages. I then had to waste an hour answering enough trivia questions correctly to not be labeled a novice (I do have some pride you know).

Then it was off to the search feature to see who else I might find. My first thought was to see if any of my coworkers were listed. I typed in a few but there are a lot of people on facebook and I wasn’t going to keep flipping through them to find the John Doe I was looking for.

Then I entered the names of some old LDS mission companions and, lo and behold, there they were. OK now I have some more friends. What about some of the people I met while serving in Belgium? Yep, I found some of them too.

I found some cousins and others from my neighborhood. Soon my friends list was multiplying daily. But who has time to mess with facebook all the time? I don’t as you can tell by the date of the last entry on this blog of mine!!

Then I started getting friend requests from people I kinda know and thought how odd that so and so would want to have an insight into my life. To date I have accepted every one of these requests, but I wonder what is it about me that makes them want to be my friend?

Maybe I am more interesting than I think…I mean being an accountant and all is not that cool. I am not the person people gravitate to at a social gathering unless they are like me and we tend to stick together. The guy in the corner listening to everyone else’s conversations, that’s me. I am content to sit on the sidelines and make everyone else happy. I’ll let my better half take care of the guests while I clean up the dishes or whatever.

So I appreciate all those people out there who have asked to be my friend. I feel like I am back in high school and the cute cheerleader who was my Chemistry partner or the jock in my Spanish class who always looked to me to help him conjugate his verbs has asked me to sign a yearbook. I am cool enough that someone wants my name inked on the pages of a yearbook that will sit in a box in the garage until the day they die. I’ll take it and I will gladly add you to my friends list and file you away in my subgroups of facebook friends...friends from growing up, friends from mission, etc.

"Thanks for noticing me" (as Eeyore says) staying in the background trying to blend into the wall.