Mbo, one of the benefits of cyber-relationships is the opportunity to find someone (reasonably) quickly who shares a MAJOR interest with us. In my teen years I would have killed to find someone I could be friends with who absolutely LOVED baseball AND folk music. I never did find that person(s) til years later. I knew there must have been someone out there who did...but the search would have taken forever. Because of the "Net" I now count several "folky/baseball" folks among my friends.

Because of my shyness then, I made huge numbers of compromises, that I'd rather not have made. Because I was considered virtually "unteachable" in school, it made me question not only my intelligence, but most certainly my work ethic. What (I now know) I really needed was a "comfortable environment" where whatever gifts I had, could flourish....that turned out (for the most part) to be the "folk community". I also cherish these friendships.

Rick