“The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved.”
Technology is here. Internet is everywhere. A friendly greeting via IM (Yahoo Messenger) started it all.
In July 2010, I was having a relaxing night at home when a message popped on my screen saying hi/hello ASL. Age: 27. Sex: Male. Location: U.S. The fact that he was from United States and a Caucasian brought me excitement. I love meeting guys who speak English fluently, someone who can tell me about Disneyland World, Universal Studio Hollywood in CA and all. Here comes a guy I can chat with about some of my interests.
After six years of not going online and chatting with strangers, I guess this is another first time for me to enter the chat room out of my boredom. Going back eight years ago, I used to be fond of chatting and I had more or less fifty chat mates from all races both male and female all over the world. It’s very fascinating to make friends with them sharing your thoughts, beliefs, and cultures. I remember those times, when a guy from NYC always did my assignment on College Algebra no wonder why I got the perfect score in our take home exam. No matter how fond I was, it never happened to me that I fell in love to any of them. Having an “online relationship” was not my cup of tea. I have this Indian-American friend, Aussie, Dutch, British, Mexican, Italian and Nigerian guy I met online, but non of them captured my heart and never had this special attractions over them. That was long ago, and after I graduated college, I quit chatting and had to abandon my old MSN Messenger when I realized that I still didn’t find a nice guy.
On the other side of the connection is him a guy named Andy who is living in Austin, Texas. He was finding someone in the Yahoo room to chat with. There he found my name and delighted to know that I’m Filipina—maybe because he had visited Philippines a couple of times and was already familiar with the place and our culture. What’s really amazing is, he had been to Boracay Island, the famous beach resort that is situated on the next island where I used to live and grew up. As a conversation starter, he sent me an IM. Lucky for us, Filipinos having two official languages: Filipino and English. We don’t need to burn a hole in our pockets to be able to speak English. So I was a bit excited to chat with him. He knows that the other reasons why I’m chatting him, is to be able to practice my English. Well, at the back of my mind there’s something sweeter than that behind it—I really wanted to be with him every minute of my life and I really enjoyed his presence as well. He makes me laugh, makes me blush, and makes me giggle that anyone can’t do. I think I was in love with him the first time I saw his face on the webcam. The first time I saw his smile for me he is the cutest guy I’ve ever seen on the entire Universe. Anyone who doesn’t believe in “love at first sight” might raise their eyebrows for what I said and so did I. But the moment he said good bye, there was a pain molded inside me associated with lots of “what ifs.” What if he won’t come online again? What if that night was our first and last chat and so on…
To continue, virtual friendship has started and after two weeks he said that he’s starting to love me. Wow, that was too fast—we even had this intimate moment in our second meeting and we both feel passion, excitement and love. Unlike any other relationship, there’s no courting happened—a “Yes or No” scenario just like in movies—a guy asking a girl to be his girlfriend something like that. In our case, we just woke up one morning feeling that I’m already his wife and he is my hubby. That was the coolest endearment I ever heard in my entire life. I feel like we are one, he is part of every cell, tissue, and limb of my body. Without him, my life will be worthless. He gives me life, he gives me strength, and he gives me direction. He is the most precious gift I’ve ever received from above.
