The ongoing Gwen Bell “Best of 2009″ idea continues with: New person. She came into your life and turned it upside down. He went out of his way to provide incredible customer service. Who is your unsung hero of 2009?

I don’t know if I can think of one person who is new who has made a huge impact, but there are a couple people who I have found this year that I knew way back when I was a wee lass.

I haven’t spoken to some of them in years, but we started to bond again over old photos and MMA, among other things.

JA (who weirdly happens to have the same initials I do) I knew in 6th, 7th and 8th grade. I moved to a different part of town and lost touch with most of the people from that time of my life (for the better, trust me), but some I wasn’t ready to let go. JA was one. he was cool and we like a lot of the same bands (being the weird-looking tomboy skater that I was), and yet we were both straight A students.

Now he’s kickin’ A, working on primatology and being a complete and utter metalhead. I had posted some about Fedor (you guys know how much I love my MMA), and we started talking about MMA and lo and behold, another intelligent friendship had begun. He told me about his girlfriend getting interested in the sport, and we made a double date (of sorts, we don’t call them that anymore) to watch some fights in the future and BAM. New (yet old) friendship sealed.

There are a couple more stories like that, and it has made a happy difference with me. I like meeting new people, but since I can get extremely shy I don’t know how to go about it. Testing out the waters of rapport with someone you knew way back is an excellent way to delve into social situations better.