Yesterday, I had the chance to finally meet Tim, a longtime TuDiabetes friend. Ever since he joined the community back in January 2009, we connected instantly and remained in touch online (through TuDiabetes and Twitter) getting to know each other (and about each other) quite a bit.
But getting to meet him was a different story. Not only was I able to put a voice to the face (with some people, like 1HappyDiabetic, that is actually not necessary, but he's a different story :D) but we were able to sit down and share anecdotes and special moments from the community, relive times in our lives with diabetes (his experience since 1977 far exceeds mine, since I have only had diabetes since 2002) and just chill and get to really meet each other.
Tim went out of his way to come meet us. He came for a job to the Bay Area and drove an hour and a half to have dinner together. And I know this is not the first time he's done this, as he has met many other members in the community already.
Next time you are planning to visit a city, I invite you to perform an Advanced Search on the Members page and see who on TuDiabetes lives there. See if you find a face of someone you would like to meet in person and let them know you are coming to their town and see if you guys can meet in person. THAT is one of the most special things an online community like ours makes possible: help develop and solidify offline connections.
It was great to meet you, man!!!
