Making It Personal: Connecting Behind the Screens

I arrived at the opening ceremony for Blogalicious12, an empowering Blogging conference and placed my bag and computer down on the table.  I was ready to hear the keynote speaker, Judene Walden of Moguldom Women.  I was ready for tips on how to make it personal for social media, the conference theme this year.  The lady seated next to me was nice enough as we exchanged casual greetings.

@tonistatonharis & @plussizeevents
#blogalicious12

 I left to pick up a brownie with white raspberries and and Iced Tea (judge me later).  At the tea bar the same lady I just exchanged a casual hello with , looked at me oddly.  "I think I know you...."  She stared.  Maybe from Blogalicious past, I thought and finally said aloud.  "No.  Jersey..."  You know you're a Jersey girl for real when you say Jersey instead of New Jersey.  I rattled off my schools, Rutgers University, Benedictine Academy....  She stopped me.  "Go back back."  She said.  I rattled off two more schools, after all there were only two more left, grammar schools, first through fifth grade and sixth through eighth. I mentioned them, Columbian and Our Lady of All Souls....formerly, both in East Orange, New Jersey.  She echoed OLAS and I thought it can't be.  I studied her face and she resonated.  I remembered her.  I remembered her, one year behind me and specifically at a school dance where her brother taught her how manuever a scarf, accenting the latest dance step on the dance floor--a step I couldn't get no matter how hard I tried.  We screamed--that's what girls do--embraced and counted the years.  It was 33 years ago that we connected in East Orange, New Jersey, today Las Vegas, Nevada at one of the greatest conferences for women of business.

(Gigi) as I remember her, @geturbizmobile now resides in Maryland, I in Los Angeles but today we connected our past to our present and ultimately our future.  My how time pasts....what a small world it is that we live in.

These are the connections that must continue as we go beyond the screens.  This is what makes social media all worth it.  We don't have to say we'll get together or keep in touch and not mean it.  In this day and age, there is no reason not to.  Today, that is how I am making it personal.  Join me.  Make it personal today....connect and stay connected for life. I made a powerful connection today.

How will you make it personal?