I find it hard, at times, to find my voice. You know that feeling, when you're with a new group of people, and a comment occurs to you and you bite it back, in case they don't find it funny (or do when it wasn't meant to be)? I know that feeling well enough, online and off. Usually, I say it anyway, because you've got to be yourself, don't you? But sometimes, shyness and self-protectiveness wins, and I bite my tongue. Then I feel horrid and awkward and then it gets even harder.
In this blogging, tweeting, flickring, tumblring world, we put ourselves out there again and again. And we find inspiration and connection, even, sometimes a little audience for our wit and wisdom and our own particular talent. And sometimes we don't.
I don't find everyone funny. I don't like all the artwork that I see. And (gasp!) I don't like everyone I meet. It's supposed to be that way. You can still have tolerance and respect, while accepting that we are all different and we all have different tastes.
We aren't in Junior High School anymore. The internet is not a competition. We can be cool, and pretty, and clever, and talented. But we are probably not the coolest, the prettiest, the most clever or the most talented. And that's okay.
I know that. I do. But still. I find it hard at times to find my voice.