Our current, Millennial generation has grown up with so many new and constantly changing aspects of technology. The internet, specifically, has helped to shape our generation. We've grown up with dozens of lectures from parents or teachers about the dangers of the Internet and Internet safety. "Don't talk to strangers!" they said. "Those people may be creepy, old pedophiles!" they shouted. Even though I had those lectures year after year, I promptly forgot everything that was said and started talking to strangers on the internet. Luckily, the people that I talked to were not creepy, old pedophiles. Over my eight years of being on the internet 24/7, I have made many friends.

I even met my best friends through the Internet!

I know what you must be thinking -- how can you be best friends with someone over the Internet? How can you be friends with someone if you haven't met them in person? How do you even know they're real?

Storytime: I met Ashley and Phoebe in my first year of college. I was really lonely and homesick, so I was spending more and more of my time on the Internet, specifically Tumblr (for those of you who may not know, Tumblr is a microblogging website), and immersing myself in the One Direction fandom. Ashley began following my blog at the very beginning of the school year, and we started talking about One Direction and other bands that we loved (since I had been following her blog for approximately three years...whoops). It transitioned into us talking literally every single day and exchanging phone numbers like a week later. The exact same thing happened with Phoebe, though she followed me later (because of Ashley's influence), and we talked more about the latest "Captain America" movie.

Last August, I flew to Chicago to meet them and go to a concert together (take one guess at who we saw). I went to Phoebe's apartment for a One Direction movie party, and I took lots of naps on Ashley's shoulder as she babysat me. Somehow, I took lots of selfies with Ashley and none with Phoebe. Those four days I spent with them are some of the best days I've ever had. I keep trying to find excuses to go back to Chicago just so I could spend even more time with them (these excuses include: lots of grad school visits, another concert trip, and a quick trip to see one of my favorite middle school bands reunite).

Before that Chicago trip, my parents were convinced that Phoebe and Ashley weren't real or that I was lying about how I met them. Spoiler: I did lie about how I met them. Sorry Mom and Dad! My parents did eventually meet Ashley and Phoebe! Kind of. They've met them via the beautiful invention that is FaceTime. Which is essentially meeting them in person. Essentially.

I talk to Ashley and Phoebe every day. No joke. If I don't happen to talk to them, my day just feels weird and I feel off. I think in the almost two years that I've been friends with both of them, there have been a combined 14 days that we have not talked and, it's only because I've been out of the country. As I scroll through the last few days of my conversations with Ashley, the majority of our conversations are about who loves the other more, buying stuff for each other, whether or not to "treat yo self," and links to posts that could describe our friendship. With Phoebe, our conversations just zig-zag from topic to topic, ranging from Backstreet Boys to the newest Marvel movie to pictures of corgis that I've captioned "us."

I really, truly, honestly talk to them more than I talk to the majority of my sorority sisters. I probably talk to them more than I talk to my roommates. If I'm on my phone, I'm probably texting one or both of them.

Though I originally met Ashley and Phoebe through the Internet, they have become my best friends and my support system. I tell them literally every mundane detail of my life, and they do the same. I've never really called anyone my best friend before but, with them, it just feels so easy and natural to say that they're my best friends. Instead of our friendships feeling like they were forged via the Internet, it now feels like I met them through my sorority or through back-to-back-to-back lectures. And because of them, I've been so incredibly lucky to meet even more friends who I've become close with and who live pretty close to me (huge shoutout to Sam for always offering me a place to crash and for sending me pictures of her cats).

I'd like to think that by being so open with people on the Internet, it's led me to being a slightly more social, friendly person who's way more comfortable with opening up to people in real life. Ashley, Phoebe, and all of my wonderful friends on the Internet (there are too many to name, honestly) have encouraged me to be my best self, and for that, I am so incredibly grateful.

Some people may not think that these friendships are as valid as "real" friendships because of the fact that we barely see each other. It's so difficult not being able to see them on a regular basis, like how "normal" best friends are able to, but it works. My friendships with them are real and valid, and the best friendships I could have ever asked for.