Perception and Joy

It has long been my belief that in most cases people have a perception of the people they talk to on the internet as being the people they are in reality. I have to say that it’s not usually true as we all have a public persona and very often a private one too. I can verify that to my cost I’ve found that the two persons can be very different.

Today Julia, Yvonne and I met someone I’ve ( we’ve) been speaking to on the internet for quite a long time. In all tht time I’ve found her sweet, charming and very thoughtful. She’s also delightfully young and though some people may disapprove of a friendship between a young girl and someone my age, it’s strange what writers of all ages have in common. And yes she’s a writer, a very good writer with one book under her belt at the age of 17.  http://www.amazon.com/Antiserum-Part-I-Patricia-Carrigan/dp/1426948263/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340551442&sr=1-1&keywords=patricia+carrigan

Anyway, back to the plot. Young Patti lives in California and under normal circumstances we’d never get to meet. Huh, in all honesty I’d never expect a youngster to want to meet but fate lent a hand. Patti was accepted to represent her State as a ‘People to People Student Ambassador’. As such she’s visiting the four Countries of the UK on a whistlestop tour. She asked if we could all meet and here we were today with the chance of half an hour together. This was history ! How often do internet penpals get to meet in real life? So Julia and I got in the car this morning and headed for the City of Chester wondering what kind of  a person we’d be meeting, how different from the persona we knew. I expect she was wondering the same and as young as she was and in a strange Country ( It’s England that’s strange not Wales of course) may have worried that she’s be stuck with some awful people until her coach left.

Arriving in Chester we parked up, collected Yvonne and headed for the City centre. We knew the route Patti would be taking and started off from point ‘B’ to point ‘A’ hoping to intercept her on the way. We reached point ‘A’ just as she texted to say she was waiting at point ‘B’ for us. That meant she had given up on the guided tour of the historic remains to get there. Round we turned and went back. The place of meeting is a very old house now an information centre and cafe. There is a large yard to the front. As we reached it Patti was at the far side waiting by the gate. She saw Julia enter and dashed over to hug her and then me ( Yes, I know I should have been first but she’s quicker than me).

What followed was a delightful half hour in which it was proved that some people are the same on and off the net. They really are that nice. I will say that it there was an Olympic event for talking she’d have been a contender but in fairness my chauvinism tells me she’s young, she’s female and perhaps she only had half an hour to get it all in. Patti is a lovely, honest and genuine person and it’s a privilege to know her and call her our friend. Having spoken to her mother and to her ‘evil’ twin I can see the whole family is like that. Maybe my perceptions will have to undergo a sea change and I should start to believe that people are after all as they portray themselves rather than Patti being the exception that proves the rule.

As well as making her family very proud of the way she represents them her State should be equally as proud that she’s letting the world see the kind of young people they produce. For anyone interested in her (brilliant) book, I should add that Patti donates half her royalties to a burns unit. Not many authors can claim that.

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