Hi. My name is Sami, and I'm a victim of having internet friends.

My internet friendship began when I started my fandom lifestyle at the age of 11 when I created my first Twitter account. Through that I met and talked to strangers over the internet who all understood my obsession with iCarly. They understood why I told my friend I couldn't hang out with her, because I had to watch the first iCarly episode with Sam and Freddie from iCarly's first kiss together. They understood me when I said that nobody around me loved iCarly like I did.

They cheered with me when I got Jennette McCurdy to finally answer one of my questions in her Twitter question and answer session. We all meshed together and united as one because we just understood that when we log into our Twitter accounts, we can finally take off our masks, leave the burdens of the real world behind, and just. be. us. Though we all came from different backgrounds, different paths of life, and even different parts of the world, we all came together to love the universe that Dan Schneider, creator of popular Nickelodeon shows like "The Amanda Show," "Drake and Josh," "Victorious," and "iCarly" created.

This all sounds incredible, so why am I a victim? Well, I'll tell you why—though this sounds all nice and dandy, having internet friends will change your life.

As shows like "iCarly" and "Victorious" came to an end and we all grew older, we continued talking about our love for the Dan Schneider TV show community, but as we ran out of episodes to overanalyze, we found new loves in other shows, books, movies, YouTubers, musicals and more. Going into new fandom paths, making new accounts on different that grow with me, brought me new friends, new obsessions, and new ways to look at life.

I started meeting real-life Internet friends when I was fourteen. I met Bekah at a book signing for Chris Colfer's third book. I was in Georgia for my brother's baseball tournament and his book signing coincided with this trip, and it also happened to be the 1-year anniversary of Corey Monteith's death, so of course I begged my mom to let me go the second I heard Bekah would be there.

I met Bekah and her grandmother, and I was over the moon excited to finally meet Bekah. We had admined a Lauren Lopez Facebook group page together and we were so excited to be finally meeting each other. Meeting Chris Colfer was an amazing experience, but Bekah was so important to my life that it was like I was getting a two-for-one deal for meet and greets.

I met my next set of internet friends when I went to my first fandom convention, GeekyCon in Orlando, Florida when I was 18. I had just graduated high school, I was going with my real-life friends, who had been to the convention before, and I had spent all year planning this trip with my real-life friends and speaking to these strangers over the internet who were just as passionate for Harry Potter as I was.

Through GeekyCon I met so many of my favorite internet and big-screen celebrities, but the best part of GeekyCon wasn't the celebrities, but the "ordinary" folks that weren't big-time celebrities that I met in person for the first time.

Blaine was one of the closest people I had gotten to know leading to GeekyCon, and I eventually got them accustomed to my real-life friends from high school who were attending GeekyCon as well. The five of us spent half the year talking on a group chat every day until we would all meet Blaine face to face. The day I met Blaine was life-changing, and I was beyond ecstatic when we all hung out on the first night. I didn't want that moment to end. It was so surreal that my best friends from home were interacting with my best friend from the internet.

Seeing all the people in real-life around GeekyCon was magical. I had seen their name all over the Facebook pages, and to associate their profile pictures with their actual faces was just an incredible feeling. It was also incredibly awkward to go up to a "stranger" and scream, "HI! Are you ___? It is me, Sami, from the internet!", but at GeekyCon, seeing the look on a person's face when they connect my face with my Facebook profile picture, it felt so right.

The last day of the convention tears were everywhere from the idea that in a few short hours, we'd all be driving or flying back home to go back to our normal lives. Some of us had met their internet friends before GeekyCon, but like Blaine and I, some of us had met face to face for the first time. For a whole year leading up to GeekyCon, or even longer for those who had been talking to their internet friends for a longer time, we had confided in each other our day-to-day lives, and we had been the escape from the demons of the real world.

It is so hard to find genuine people in the real world, and once you find those people you hold onto them with dear life, but when it comes to internet friends, you just find a connection that you can't find with those in real life. All a connection takes is similar interest and the mutual understanding that the universe our favorite authors, playwrights, writers and more had created can be better than the real world.

Conclusion? Don't get internet friends. They will turn your world upside down. They will understand you (the HORROR), they will confide in you (and who can REALLY keep secrets??), and they will, in turn, allow you to confide your real-world problems back without judgment (who said that venting is healthy?). They will treat you exactly how you want to be treated, and most importantly, they will help you keep it together until you meet again.

When you and your internet friend(s) reunite, whether it be in 6 months, or a year, or six years, fears and insecurities will fly away, and you can truly be yourself with them, without fear of judgement. You'll just click back together and it was like no time had passed since your last visit. Whether you live 500 miles or 5,000 miles apart, you will find a way to meet again, whether it be in person, or through entering each other's souls.