The doctors thought I would die in a week because I was also born with a very small mouth, not even a straw can slip through it. The doctors were wrong and I grew up, adapting to life during my youth.

It was hard. Girls, for the most part, felt sorry for me. They saw what was on the outside and turned away from my heart. In high school, I wasn't that popular. I had a few friends, but no one wanted to love me. So I graduated high school in 1992, in Apple Valley, CA. I had a lot of scars in my heart from all the turn-downs and negative, sometimes rude, responses whenever I asked a female friend out.
In my junior college years, it was lonely. I made almost no friends, I felt like an outcast sometimes. Even in my first math class, in college, the class loved my stand-up acts, but no one wanted to be friends with me. 

After 3 1/2 years struggling with a lonely outside life, I turned to the computer for love. I went on some local BBSes (bulletin board systems), but they were all crazy users. So I stopped searching and let them come to me, which was hopeless to say the least. In February, 1996 I went into the Teleconference, (which is like a chat room on AOL with a whole bunch of users in it), and there was this person named Kep in there alone.

When I saw the name, it looked male to me. Anyway, Kep said "Hi," and I asked, "Hey dude, what's up?" Kep said, "I'm not a dude, I'm a dudette." So we started talking about where we live, not very personal things. Five minutes after we met, I had to go eat lunch. So we said to each other, "See you again sometime." That night, I logged on to the Telnet and Kip was in there. We both privately paged each other so much, we went in a private chat room. We talked about more personal issues for three hours. I was up front and told her about my disabilities; she didn't mind because she thought I seemed very nice. We talked everyday from that point on, and we grew very close. Soon we both decided we wanted to meet each other.

So, me being a gentleman, I flew to New Hampshire in the beginning of July. Stayed in a hotel near her parents house for 13 days. We had lots of fun together. On the fifth day, at an amusement park, we kissed. After that, we were in love. On the 13th day, I had to go back to California. At first, we didn't know if it would last. It was a VERY long distance love affair, and it hurt flying back to California. After all the pain I've been through in my life, I didn't want to lose Kyria. My parents thought for sure it was never going to last. I had to stick with my heart and try my best; Kyria wanted to try her hardest too. So we made it through the summer talking on the Net & phone. My bill ran up sky high to say the least.

A short while later she flew to California, met my parents and had a fun week. After more months of talking and visiting, I asked her to marry me, and she accepted. Our families were happy for us - though my parents were worried, too. I had lived under their roof for nearly 25 years and it was hard to leave two people who stood by you, helped you adapt to life and pushed you to do your best and to find happiness.

But I did, and Kyria and I are getting married in June, 2000, three days after my 27th birthday.

"Sean"