Biologically, I have four sisters I never met. By adoption, I have a sister who did not support my parent’s decision to adopt me (she was only 2.5 at the time but still very vocal and physical about her unhappiness with the situation). When I started blogging, it was because I wanted to find a community of women where I would fit in, where I would feel like I was one of them.
I didn’t just find a community, I found a sisterhood.
I’m no longer close to my sister-by-adoption. Instead, I have blog sisters. Some of them know how much they mean to me, and some don’t realize that to me, their friendship is as important to me as a family relationship.
We don’t share parents. We didn’t grow up together. And yet, to me, my online sisters feel as real as if we had the same blood running through our veins. I always imagined that sisters were best friends who also shared a parent or some other kind of family situation, but I’ve had to create that sister relationship from people I met online. Does that make them any less important to me? Heck, no.
My online BFF Lisa has been there for me during some truly low times in my life in the two years we’ve been friends, and has cheered my successes as often as I’ve cheered hers. Just knowing that I can look for her on IM and ask her a question, tell her something that just happened, get her advice, rant about something frustrating, knowing that she is as there for me from 3 hours away as she would be if she lived next door, that is what makes her my sister.
In September, Kelby Carr of Type-A Mom is holding the Type-A Mom Conference in Asheville, N.C. Advertiser and supporter The Sister Project is running a contest to give one lucky winner an all-expenses paid trip to the conference, as well as two additional prizes. This post is my entry in that contest, which asks entrants to fill in this blank-”You know you’re a sister when…?” Because I don’t have a physical relationship on which to base my feelings about sisterhood, my contest entry is about how you know you’re a sister to someone you met online.
You know you’re a sister when you hug someone at a blog conference and it feels like hugging family. You know you’re a sister when you want to help younger bloggers succeed by giving them advice, and when you seek the advice of older bloggers in hopes they will help you. That’s what sisters do, right? You’re a sister when the only room available at the conference has a king size bed and you feel perfectly comfortable sharing it with your best friend-slash-roommate.
In real life I am not a sister. In the online world, I’ll take all the sisters I can get.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=8ff540fb-8468-45d6-b78d-5da84c6b83d5)
More From table4five
table4five Recommends
- I Increased My Twitter Followers by 2000 In 24 Hrs! (Chad Nicely)
- Festival: My version (LavenderLuz)
Aw! what a wonderful description of great friendships. Very nice.
Twitter: Table4Five
says:
Thanks Karen!
Twitter: marybabysteps
says:
Wonderful, wonderful post! I hope you’ll make it to Asheville because I’ll be there, and I SO want to meet you.
Twitter: Table4Five
says:
Unless I win the Sister Project contest I probably won’t be able to come, I don’t have a credit card so I can’t pay for the conference pass or plane ticket or hotel. But I could get lucky! And I want to meet you too!
Blog sisterhood is a wonderful way to meet sisters we never knew we had! Enjoyed your posting. May many more sisters come your (and my) way!
I used to believe that online relationships were shallow, but as I’ve begun to blog and research blogging, I’ve realized that a relationship is what you have in comment and what you invest in that. Online relationships can be just as real and valuable as F2F relationships. Love the sisterhood theme: I hadn’t heard anyone relate their relationships in this way! Cool!
Twitter: Table4Five
says:
Carie-when I started blogging I had no idea how many friends I would make, online friends that became real life friends. Thank you for the comment, hope you stop by again!
It means you build family through blogging. I never heard something like this before. I already go around many blogs and the topic I mostly found is ‘how to make money with blog’. Because when people jumping on blogging, what actually in their mind is how to make money.
I mostly make friend with social media, not blog.
great, so glad to hear that and I like this sentence:We don’t share parents. We didn’t grow up together. And yet, to me, my online sisters feel as real as if we had the same blood running through our veins. I always imagined that sisters were best friends who also shared a parent or some other kind of family situation, but I’ve had to create that sister relationship from people I met online. Does that make them any less important to me? Heck, no.and welcome to family-relationships.cz.cc
great, so glad to hear that and I like this sentence:We don’t share parents. We didn’t grow up together. And yet, to me, my online sisters feel as real as if we had the same blood running through our veins. I always imagined that sisters were best friends who also shared a parent or some other kind of family situation, but I’ve had to create that sister relationship from people I met online. Does that make them any less important to me? Heck, no.and welcome to http://family-relationships.cz.cc
It’s amazing that people can connect with each other over the internet, it opens up a world of networks you never thought existed.
.-= Anthony´s last blog ..Toddler Links And Resources =-.