At some point in our lives, we have all had our parents tell us not to talk to strangers on the Internet I was no exception. While, when I was younger I believed this statement to be true, as I got older and got my own laptop, this became a harder ‘rule’ to follow. My parents never enforced it, nor did they check up on what I was doing online. They trusted me and believed that what I was doing was what they had raised me to do. I never talked to people I had met online until I was 15. While, yes, I had brief interactions with strangers who might have followed my social media accounts which have always been public, I never gave out my phone number to anyone I met online. That changed when I was 15.
When I was 15, almost 16, I was obsessed with the band Five Seconds of Summer. I had a fan account on twitter, and followed similar fan accounts. One day, another account messaged me and asked me to join a group message she had made with other fans. This included me giving out my phone number. I did not hesitate and quickly became friends with these girls. There were 10 of us and we called ourselves the ‘nuggets’. We remained close for about a year and then we drifted apart. I still remain in touch with one of the girls, Erika, however, we talk very rarely now.
However, when I was 16 I went through a rough patch. I was in a troubled relationship and was dealing with my own mental health issues. I used my tumblr account to vent these problems, as I was too afraid to burden anyone in my real life with my problems. It was then I met Maddi. She messaged me one day out of the blue and told me she loved my account. We started messaging through tumblr daily, until one day one of us asked the other for their phone number. It was then we would start texting each other non-stop. While Maddi lives in Canada, and I live in America, and we are separated by a year in age, we have remained friends for over a year. Maddi is one of my best friends, and often the person I go to first when I am dealing with problems. She never belittles me and tells me things, as they are, never beating around the bush. She is one of the most beautiful people I have ever ‘met’, inside and out. She never fails to bring a smile to my face when I have been non-stop crying for hours. From sending each other ugly photos of ourselves to just venting about boys, Maddi is there for me through it all.
Meeting people online and reaching out to them is not always a bad thing. For me it turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. While, yes, there are some creeps out there, there are more genuinely amazing people out there.
