Okay, I have "met" several people so here are a few....
Friends #1, 2 and 3 -- I've known all for almost 5 years
During my sophomore high school I "met" Friend #1 in a chat room for my city. I found out that she went to my high school for a year and that we knew some of the same people. Her and I became good friends. We've only met in person a few times, and even though we don't talk all of the time, we are still really good friends.
A few months after I met Friend #1, she "introduced" me to Friend #2. (Friends #1 and #2 met each other on the internet some how and had known each other for a year or something) Friend #2 and I have become really close and talk almost every day!! I consider her one of my really close friends. She lives in Houston, which is four hours from me. I've met up with her quite a few times when I have been up in Houston. In fact, I am planning on going over to visit in October - November of this year. (I am going to be 21 in October and she just turned 21 a week ago...yay!!!)
About a week after Friend #1 introduced me to Friend #2, she "introduced" me to another friend, Friend #3. Friend #1 and Friend #3 also met online somehow and had known each other for a while before we were introduced. Friend #3 is from a small town in Ohio, so we've never met, although we have known each other for so long. We've also become really close, but haven't talked all that much lately because she has been working two jobs this summer to save for school. I keep saying I am going to go up there and she keeps saying that she is going to come down here, but we are both poor college students.
One day, one day.
So that is my "on-line group of friends." We all chat with each other, although I am the only one who really chats with Friend #3. Back when I first met them all, we would all go into a private chat room and spend all night just talking away. Keep in mind that this was back in high school, of course, and we had nothing better to do.
We send each other gifts for b-days and Christmas. Friend #1 got married a few years back (during my junior year of HS -- her senior year) and Friend #2 and I went to the wedding. Things didn't work out for the couple so they quickly divorced and now Friend #1 has found her true love and the wedding is set for March of 2004. Friend #2 and I will definitely be there. Maybe this will be the day that we all get to meet Friend #3.
Friend # 4
At the end of my sophomore year of high school I met this guy online who is from Houston. He is a year younger than me, so he had just ended his freshman year of high school. Anyway, we talked all day, every day that summer. Towards the end of the summer we began talking on the phone and then that turned into an every day thing. (We both had cell phones so the long distance thing wasn't a problem) We became very, very close and knew that if we had been in the same city, we would already have been a couple. We always sent cards and random gifts to each other through the mail. Anyway, a year and a half after we "met" on-line I get a card from him in the mail that reveals to me that he is falling in love with me. I felt the same way, so there we were, two people who had never met in person before in love with each other. Three months after that card we met in person. It was so awesome, felt so perfect. A few months after that, he actually went to my high school prom with me!!!!!!
I have family in Houston so I went up to visit a few times and got to hang out with my "friend." I ended up going to college in Houston the first semester of my college life, so him and I got to hang out quite a bit the week before school started for us both. (He is a smart kid, so he started college two years early. The school he went to was in Dallas) We ended up becoming a couple although we both knew what it would entail, being apart from each other an all. We managed for a few months and on our "official" six month anniversary I broke up with him because things weren't working out. (I say "official" because we were already a couple, just w/o the label) It was hard afterward, but him and I were able to remain friends just as we were before. We haven't talked in a couple of months but for some other reason you all don't care to hear.
Him and I have known each other for 4 1/2 years now.