blog vs email

No doubt that through blogging, I have made new friends (in fact im quite amazed at how much friends I have made). But what sadden me is that, ever since I have my blog, I kind of neglected my email. I hardly write any personal emails to my friends nowadays. Whenever I have the free time, I would end up typing for a new post instead of typing an email.

Oh I feel bad. I have a dear from from Germany, whom I knew when I attended the Mensa Summer Camp in Vienna. She was my facilitator but has now turned to a good friend of mine. The Summer Camp took place in 1998…that was 10 years ago. Since then, we email each other almost every week…keeping one another update with our life. She even came to Malaysia once and I returned her visit. It was such a memorable trip when I visited her. I can still clearly remember the view outside the window of her house when I woke up in the morning. First thing I did was to look out if there’s snow that morning and next I would run down the steps to read the thermometer to see the temperature. I would be smiling away if it’s below 0 Celcius =) (simply because that can never happen in Malaysia, so jadi jakun…hihi)

But since I have this blog…I hardly send her an email because I was thinking whatever I wrote in the email was just a duplicate (almost) of my blog entry. And since I knew she reads my blog, I ended up updating my blog instead of writing to her. And I was glad that I could still keep her update (and at the same time allow others to read bout my update).

But little did I know that…posting on a blog is never the same as sending an email. It’s not personal and also it’s only a one-way thingy. She reads bout my life, but what about her life. Gosh, now I’m feeling selfish…I kept on talking about my life yada yada yada and never care to drop a line or two in her mailbox asking bout her.

Yes, I do realize that I haven’t been in much contact with my dear friend so Christmas was an ideal reason to give her a call (to make it even more personal than sending email). It was nice to hear from her. I was smiling from ear to ear throughout the conversation. She told me bout her new hobby (which I’m sure I would definitely knew about this hobby IF ONLY we still keep sending email to each other – see, am I not being selfish who only talks bout myself and never asked bout her side of story) And I totally don’t blame her for not writing to me coz who wants to continue writing if at the end of the day never gets any reply. (I’m knocking my head now…bad bad munirAh)

And what makes me realize that updating a blog is never enough and can never be the same as corresponding through email was when I asked her about her family. I felt terribly bad to hear from her that her father had passed away…on 31st July 2008. My heart most condolence to you my dear friend. She said, she didn’t have the heart to break such news to me thinking that is was near my birthday. How considerate was she! But that makes me feel really really bad, a friend who actually kept such news just because she didn’t want to spoil my birthday. (whereas birthday is just another day for me).I felt really hopeless, I was just too busy blogging away till I didn’t even know that my friend lost her father. I was just too busy blogging that I wasn’t there to give my dear friend support when she needed it most. Because of this, I’m gonna make a promise to start sending emails again…even if it is just a line or two. I’m sure that’s more personal (and NOT selfish)