I live in the generation of the evolution of the internet. I grew up with the introduction of social media. I grew up in the era of “don’t talk to strangers on the internet.” Now, it seems to be that people become friends online more than they do in person. But seven years ago when I was 14 and on social media, my parents, all tv shows, and my school taught me that it wasn’t safe or smart to talk to people online who you don’t know. After all, you never really knew who you were talking to if they were just typing behind a screen.

But I’m a stubborn brat who wanted friends and acceptance and I didn’t listen. In 2010, I made YouTube videos and I had a Twitter. Back then on YouTube, you could send messages via inbox and that’s how we would communicate with each other. These people had to be real, right? They were making and posting the same types of videos I was. They had to be the age they claimed they are, be the person they claimed they are, and live where they claimed live...right?

So I made friends. And we moved from YT inbox to Skype, OoVoo, and iChat. We would video chat for hours. Our parents would sit on video chat with us and meet each other’s parents because we were best friends, and we wanted to meet in person someday. I had friends from Maryland (my own home state), to California, to Connecticut, to New York, to Australia, to Louisiana, to Texas, to Ireland. And I wanted to meet all of them. Luckily, we had these events around the country that we’d often get to meet up at, and some of them lived close enough that, with parental supervision, we got to actually meet in person multiple times, and I have remained friends with many of them to this day. For example, Jack Baran has been my best friend since the end of 2010. It has become a tradition for me to fly to Los Angeles and visit him over winter break every year, and I’m so happy to watch him grow and succeed as both a content creator and my friend for life.

I met a girl named Bella on YouTube in 2010. She’s from the Gold Coast in Australia. The 17-hour time difference always made our Skype calls a little difficult, but we managed. And we finally met in person summer 2016 when she visited me in DC a couple weeks before she began her journey to New York studying abroad for the year. The Chainsmokers concert in Tampa was April 12, 2017, so we made plans for her to come visit me at UT that weekend. We had the most incredible weekend, and I wouldn’t change a thing. She got to experience Tampa bars, parties, concerts, Florida beaches, and SDT life at a school other than her own (she joined SDT at Oswego while she has been abroad).

So did I listen to everyone when I was told nonstop not to talk to strangers on the internet? No. Do I regret it? Not one bit. I have been blessed to have made friends not just from my country, but from around the world. I have friends in multiple countries who have taught me slang words they use. (How keen!) I’ve tasted Australian candy I could never find in a convenience store here in America. I have friends all around the country who I can stay with if I want to travel, especially in Los Angeles. I have learned to be open to different cultures, and I am proud. I’m so lucky to have friends with the same passions as me, who have lived completely different lives than me. And I am so lucky to be able to meet them in person and show them my world and experience theirs.