When Online Friends Become Forever Friends

There is really something to be said for the connections we make on the internet. In all honesty, it’s the modern-day form of pen pals and it’s a great way to bring like minded people together. I wanted to take time to make a post about how amazing I think it is that I’ve maintained sooo many meaningful friendships with people I’ve met online and some that I have yet to even meet in real life.

I think my longest running friendship with someone I don’t even know in person is my friend Sara that I met in some animal chatroom on AOL and we would IM each other. We found each other on Facebook a couple years later and we’ve been friends ever since. She’s awesome and so supportive of me anytime I’m going through something. But it’s wild to me that for like almost 2 decades now I’ve had her in my life.

Right after I graduated high school and became even more immersed in online forums for pet owners. When I got Pixie as a puppy back in 2005, I was super excited to be a part of a Chihuahua forum so I could talk with and get advice from other Chihuahua owners. The one I found and really liked was a smaller one with maybe 20-30 women in it. Eventually some of the people (including myself) moved over to another forum and then all became friends on Facebook. We’ve followed each other’s lives of pets for as long as I can remember and sometimes it makes me forget that I only know them THROUGH their photos even though sometimes it feels like I’ve been with them in person. One of the awesome people I have kept in touch with is who I got Stella from so that’s pretty cool!

Me and Monica, my blogger BFF (she even came to my wedding!)

These people are amazing though because they are the ones that band together to support one of us when we suffer a loss or just any other hard time. We support each other’s business ventures and when something is wrong with one of my dogs, they’re the first people I reach out to for an opinion. We’ve seen each other through breakups, marriages, kids, old and new dogs, and other major life events.

 

Me and Colleen, from the Jerseylicious fan club, lol!

And of course, who can forget, blogging. Blogging conferences specifically are how I’ve met some awesome women, one being my best friend. We met in New York and learned that we only live about 3 hours from each other so we would drive halfway to meet up for dinner or lunch every few months. And one of my other best friends I met in the comment section of a Facebook page about Jerseylicious (yes that reality show with the Jersey girls with the long nails and fancy hair) and we started chatting, checked out each other’s blogs and she actually stopped by my house one year as she was passing through. Ironically, she also has a Chihuahua which helped us bond more when we started comparing notes in the comments. I have another blogger friend that I can text for advice, and although I’ve never met her, I feel like I have.

I have met friends over social media like Twitter and we stayed friends on Facebook and even ended up meeting in real life. One passed away last year and I spoke at her memorial service. Isn’t it WILD how we can forge such strong bonds with people even if they’re across the globe, and we don’t have to be physically together to do so? I have a couple friends in other countries as well.

It’s really cool how life works and I always think about the fact that if the internet didn’t exist, I’d likely never have these exact same connections that I currently do.

What stories do you have from internet friends that became REALLY special friends?

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