The Summer passed and I didn't get online much, in fact I was sort of losing my addiction to it. School started and I had a lot of problems here in North Carolina so I moved to Florida to live with my grandparents and go to school there. Lonely doesn't even begin to describe how I felt! I started talking online more and more (also I needed to be online b/c part of my schooling was through the internet). I was visiting North Carolina over Christmas 2000, was bored and my old friends had grown distant. I was surfing through sites one night and came across one where it had the webmaster's screen name. 

I thought it wouldn't hurt to IM him, ask a few questions to pass the time and then be gone. Little did I know that I had come across the most amazing person. His name was Ryan and instantly we became friends. The second he signed on I was overcome with happiness and wasted no time in IMing him. I was traveling back and forth from Florida to North Carolina and he was traveling back and forth from college to home. We began thinking of each other as "traveling" friends. We could take each other anywhere! He became a huge part of my life and I shared everything with him. In April 2001 we had both felt that our relationship had grown to a little more than friendship. Unable to take it to the next step we tried to say goodbye, telling ourselves it wouldn't work. We didn't last a week without each other! 

Emails and IMs quickly brought him back into my life, but this time as my boyfriend! We became inseparable and close over the summer. In August when he got back to college we started talking on the phone. On weekends he would call from his cell phone for 2, sometimes 3 hours at the time. During the week we'd talk quickly from his cell phone, or I would buy a two hour phone card and use it in one phone call. We both realized that this was no way to continue our relationship, we needed to grow in real life too, so we decided to meet. After growing used to the idea, discussing what we would be nervous about, our expectations and hopes of meeting he purchased a ticket. 

We met on February 1, 2002. I was visiting my grandparents in Florida and he flew down. The second he stepped from behind the security stand I wasn't nervous or anything. My aunt, mother, brother and cousin had also come to the airport so it was hard to carry on a private conversation but we managed. It was just like online! The closeness, trust and attraction was all there! We spent a wonderful two days together that I will never forget. Saying bye was awful, but we knew we would see each other soon. Being back online now is hard at times now that we have shared the physical part of the relationship. Talking on the phone with him makes me mad because I want to SEE him talking and laughing. 

Emails and IMs don't seem as magical now that I've looked into his eyes and hugged him. But we are still close as ever, if not more than before. We know that we have a strong relationship that can make it through anything. He's coming to spend his Spring Break with me. Six whole days with him in the beginning of March! I can hardly wait, I'm counting down the days. When I look back I'm shocked at how minute our chance meeting was. It terrifies me that I met him only by browsing through sites. If I had not gone to his site, I would have never met this amazing person whom I love so much. It is for this reason I KNOW that I belong with him and that what we share was meant to be. 

"Christina"

>> Continued in Part Two.