I’m shocked I haven’t blogged about this yet and I believe that it is quite overdue. In my entire life so far, I have had one amazing group of friends support me and laugh with me for 4 years. I’m just about the luckiest person in the world to have met them.
“Met,” I guess, would be a funny word here. I always thought about the people I knew in person and the people I’ve never met face to face. It’s funny how my best friendships are the ones with the spectacular people that I’ve never even waved hello to.
I started playing MapleStory in 2006 with a group of my friends from school. That went well until they moved on to other things and somehow, MS remained the only thing for me at the time. Although, at this point I’m pretty happy I didn’t quit earlier. As my years spent on that game went by, I had the pleasure of meeting some of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. With most of them, I’d spend all day talking. I’d always be in a hurry to get home or wake up in the morning so I can spend time with them. We’d stay up late Skyping and playing other games too. They were always there to give me advice or to lift my spirits when people at school or my family made my life harder. I wouldn’t know where or who I would be right now if it weren’t for these amazing people.
And it fascinated me how people who lived hundreds to thousands of miles away could care for me more than anyone I spent time with at school or at home.
I eventually lost touch with most of these wonderful people, but I’m pretty sure I’ll never forget them. It’s corny, but I don’t care. It’s better to remember a time where I thought I had no one but ended up with even more than I ever deserved.
More than anything, though, I love that I can still keep in touch with some of these people today. If not all the time, then at least once in awhile to catch up. The best thing is that they stopped just being friends that I only know online. I’ve gotten the opportunity to volunteer at Disneyland Half Marathons with them, to go shopping with them, to go to the movies, to go eat dinner, and go to Disneyland together with them.
Bonus pic: Me and Maggie at Disneyland. She lives in Canada and honestly she’s closer to me than anyone I ever saw regularly at school. We only have this one picture together, but in my defense I’d like to say that I was so excited to see her I just forgot to take more. 😛
4 comments
My closest friend is someone I met online! I talk to him the most, and we have played many online games together. We’ve also met in person multiple times now. I think that’s great that you met a group of people like that on Maple Story, and that you’ve met them in person too! I feel like the nice thing about meeting people online is that you become friends over common interests. When it comes to offline friends, most of mine are from school or work, and sometimes it’s easy to lose touch when you don’t have that school/work connection anymore.
I remembered those MapleStory days! I played the actual server since 2006 but moved on to private servers as soon as it kicked off. It’s interesting how online friends can be better than IRL friends. Why?!?!? It’s so cool that you can meet these people in person and can keep a long lasting friendship with them!
Speaking of which, let me know if you’re ever free in socal ;).
Aw, I so will! I always visit in short amounts of times, but whenever I have time I’ll def let you know 🙂
You never forget the people in your lives no matter what happens between you and them. They are always in your heart, always.