MichaelMidnight.com

The Summer of 2008 holds a special place in my heart because that’s when I had the fortunate chance to witness so many wonderful characters who were live streaming portions of their lives on BlogTV and documenting themselves in vlogs and creating skits that were uploaded to YouTube.  I remember in particular the videos that showcased a YouTube Gathering that was taking place in the Pacific Northwest.  It was evident that these were people who genuinely enjoyed what they were doing online and each other’s company.  And in a year’s time, I got to experience that first hand at the second gathering, which we’ve all lovingly refer to as the Northwest YouTube Gathering of 2009.  Again I had met more people that soon became friends.  And before I know it, Time had spun her hands around the clock countless times over and years had gone by.  And soon these people who had become my Internet friends, our connections relegated to the digital world, had become my real world friends.

The past weekend in Seattle was some of the most fun I had.  Walking and taking the transit in a city I did not completely know was adventurous.  It was like a real-life Zelda game, where after retrieving some magical fire-water, I had to travel in the cold, dark night up perilous flights of stairs before completing my task.  Spending a few days finding costumes and taking crazy cool pictures will forever mark how cool a Saturday can be.  Though I am a lone creature of the night, there is something to be said about being with friends up to the dead of the night and laughing at the most absurd things like a sombrero wearing cockroach riding upon the back of a black rodent.  Or the fortuitous nature of finding a hat with a red star that matched a green jacket, that changed a bubbly guy full of character into the incumbent supreme leader of North Korea.

The chatter last night among friends spread across two tables at Johnny Rockets, made me realize how we are such a special generation of people.  Though a mix of age and distance, we’ve come to see that the Internet has brought us together and gone are the days one would fear or be bathed with indignation of “meeting someone from the Internet”.