I don't know how everyone else's meetups have been going, but here in Melbourne we had our first official meetup on Saturday night.
The meetup situation is quite different to meeting people off a discussion board such as this...as you have already formed a friendship or become familiar online...so this was a new experience for me.
In attendance we had 6 ex-dubs, 3 guys, 3 gals, as well as 2 non-dub partners. At the first venue we found it hard to talk and hear each other...so we moved on to a quieter venue where we all shared pizza and drinks and were able to talk across the table with each other. It was very relaxed and we soon found that once we had exchanged our personal stories of our level of involvement with the WT and our our exit experiences...we could then enquire as to how each individual was dealing or coping with their new-found freedom. Three of us had very similar exit stories which I found interesting.
Overall it was a great night...with lots of laughter and understanding smiles...and there is a good chance the next meet up will be at one of the attendee's homes.
So if you're contemplating on going to a meet up...I encourage you to do so. It is a good way to meet others who just simply 'understand'.
There were a few we missed and hope to see at the next one, Debz, Refiners, Hellraiser, Marilyn and elderrepents. But meeting Wizard, Jack and Nick was awesome as well as seeing Chezza (and hubby) and Downunder again....we also did a phone link up with Prisca.
Looking forward to the next one.
~Beck~