Growing up, I was told by my parents not to do a lot of things. One of these things being the popular, "not to talk to strangers on the Internet" which I followed...especially after being told all of the horror stories.

I made my first Tumblr account in the fall of 2011. I was 16 years old and a sophomore in high school. I honestly can't remember how I found out about the blogging site, but I made an account, followed some people, reblogged some images and didn't do anything big with it for the next couple of months. It wasn't until one day in my art class in the spring semester, that one of my friends was talking about her favorite show- ABDC ("Americas Best Dance Crew"). I had heard little of the show, but I quickly got into it and wondered if I could find anything about it on tumblr. Sure enough I did. Not only that, but I found a bunch of blogs that were dedicated to my favorite crew on the show- the ICONic Boyz. It turned out that the dance crew had actually accumulated a big amount of fans and these fans had formed a fandom called the "ICONiacz."

Besides being a "belieber" the "ICONiacz" was actually one of the very first fandoms I had joined. I had quickly learned how to actually use tumblr from the other girls in the fanbase and soon enough, made a few friends. One day a blog I followed (which was actually one of my favorite blogs) was taking requests for one shots, which is generally just a very short, short story. This blog was run by a girl my age, named Janie. I sent her a message saying "hey, I love your blog, can I have a one shot?" To my surprise, Janie replied saying that she would write one and then before I knew it she did. That particular one shot she wrote actually got the most notes and became really popular and she ended up messaging me to tell me how popular it got. After that, we began to just message on Tumblr.

Strike One: Talking to a complete stranger on the Internet.

Weeks later, she told her friends on there to add her on Facebook and to just message her the urls of their blog and she would add you back if she knew who you were. I figured, "hey, we've talked multiple times before and she seems pretty cool so why not add her on Facebook?" I did exactly that and sent her a message with my Tumblr url and she replied back with "I remember you" and accepted my friend request.

Strike Two: Adding someone you don't know on Facebook.

After that, it really all became a blur. I can't remember when we exchanged phone numbers or when we started texting all the time. I couldn't tell you when she followed me on Twitter or when I added her on Snapchat. And I couldn't even tell you whether or not she was actually a real teenage girl or just a 40-year-old man pretending to be one. But I could tell you that my mom was skeptical of that fact that I was becoming best friends with a girl I met on Tumblr. I could describe the looks on some of my closest friend faces when I told them where I had met Janie. And the same went for her, from her friends and family. I could tell you the basic facts: she was my age, she lived in North Carolina, she loved soccer. I could tell you about how we fangirled over our favorite bands and celebrities. How we talked about our favorite t.v. shows and movies. How we complained about school and talked about how we were looking at colleges and what colleges to look at.

Our friendship grew fast and we became close in such a short amount of time that it still shocks us both. Before we knew it, we had been friends for two years and yet it had felt like 10. In the summer of 2014, my mom had done something I never imagined her doing in a million years, ever. We had rented a beach house for a week up in Destin and she told me I should invite Janie. At this point in time, Janie and I had FaceTimed and Skyped frequently and our parents's fears of their child being friends with a 40-year-old man had been shut down. So I texted Janie, telling her about what my mom had just said and gave her the dates and she had asked her mom and all in a matter of what felt like a few hours, tickets were booked for her to fly down to Florida.

On July 26th, 2014, Janie flew from Raleigh, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida. At this point in time, we had been friends for two and a half years and had never met. Our only ways of communications were: social media, FaceTime and texting. It was absolutely mind blowing that after talking to this person for two and a half years and becoming so close to them...that she was actually a real person. That entire week at the beach house was one of the most memorable parts of my summer, because I got to spend it with my best friend. We got to talk about all the things we would constantly talk about over texting and social media, but this time face to face.

It's been almost four years since the day I sent the friend request that changed my life. In the past two years, I visited Janie at her school and met her family over my fall break, and she's visited me at my school. We talk practically 24/7 and our conversations are no different than they were four years ago. The only thing that's different is our age and the things going on in our daily lives.

This summer, in July, Janie and I will get the opportunity to hang out multiple times- all in the span of two weeks. Looking back on it now, it's kind of crazy to see how close we are and to see how we became friends. Growing up, I was a pretty sneaky kid. I was frequently in trouble and had a pretty hard time following my parents rules. The most important rule growing up: don't talk to strangers.

Well normally while growing up, if I didn't follow my parents rules, I would get grounded. But by defying my parents rule this one time, I actually found something really important.

I found my best friend.