Tribute to online Friendships

[Xander]

So how is it with you guys. Do you treasure your online friendships as much as I do??

I treasure mine a whole fucking lot. These people are special and in many ways, influence me and my life in the most positive way.
I consider them all friends, and some I dare to say best of friends.
I care for them a lot, and hate to see bad things happen to them.

I feel for them, and help them, if I can, in any way possible.

Those who have given me trust, I give the same. Some of them know more about me, than most RL friends do. Definately more than my family do.

This thread is a tribute to our online friendships.
And for mine I can only say this.

Even if there thousands and thousand of miles in between us. You make a difference.
You make me smile, you make me cry.

One give me heart flutter so I feel I can fly.

To think that without the net
None of us would never have met
I am proud to sit at my end
and be able to call you friends

I wouldn't have missed this for the world
You make a difference!!!
You are part of my world
Thanks for being you

You know who you are.

 

[Ravenloft]

I stick a feather in your hat and call you friend good sir.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Thank you right back atcha Bubba.

and you're welcome too.

 

[cheekyminx]

I love my on line friends and treasure their friendship just as much as my real life friends. Damn I hate the term real life. Does anyone have another phrase? Because my on line friends are real. There are real people sitting on the end of computers. So anyone have a better phrase?

 

[Friendly Dragon]

I value my online friends just as much as my "real life" friends, often more so. I've shared things with them that I'd never even think of sharing with people I know in...damn, I hate using the term "real life" too. How about just calling them offline friends? Geez, that was easy

 

[Countess DeWinter]

There are times that saying I "treasure" my online friends just doesn't do the feelings justice. One or two occupy very special places in my heart.

 

[SweetCherry]

I talk with my online friends more often than the friends I have in my own area. I trust my online friends with more secrets than I would those in my 'off-line' life. And I miss my 'on-line' friends more often than my other friends.

 

[teresafannin]

I also cherish the on line friendships I have made. I was in the process of totally withdrawing from life, when I found this board & one other. By talking to people on the boards, I became more comfortable with my offline friends.

 

[willfulbrat]

My online friendships mean the world to me. I have enjoyed reading your posts so much and feel like I'm getting to know you all. I would add so many more of you to my "favorites" list now that I've read enough posts to match personalities to names.

BTW, Xander, I finally saw your website and you are a dollbaby!

 

[Busty]

I have probably made one of the best friends I'll ever have online. He is the sweetest person I have ever known - no judgements made, support offered and given on many occasions and just an all around nice guy. He is one of the last true gentlemen from a generation where being a gentleman was important. Budman I love you hon - you're my bestest friend.

 

[Busty]

Not to have forgotten anyone else - JC -you rock girl - love you to death. There are a few others who have become very close friends. A year ago if you had told me that I was gonna meet my closest friend online I would have told you that you were nuts but life has a way of fooling you. The people I have met for the most part have been wonderful and you are right some of them have had a profound influence in my life. To those who I call friend and who call me friend - I loves you. As for the rest well I guess my signature line says it all.

 

[eastcoastbaby]

i too have made incredible friends online...and look forward to making many more...who else can i tell all my secrets to and know that they will stay secret, because who would my online friends tell?
lit is truly an experience i will never forget...grinning
ecb

 

[Matthew D]

Okay I have one good friend I have met online.. but here lately I am not having as much luck meeting good friends.. I have them drift in and drift out to much for my own tastes but I do enjoy the time I do get to spent with them like in real life

 

[willywanker]

I'm on the band wagon with some great on-line friends. I'm married and I can talk to my brother about most of the stuff that comes up but I have an on-line "friend" and that doesn't seem to be a stong enough word sometime, who is ever ready to listen to my complaints. I type pretty slow tho I am getting faster, so sometimes we talk on the phone to speed things up. Its probably fortunate for my marriage that this lady is on the other side of the country because if we were close enough, I know the temptation of "greener grass" would have been tough to resist several times shen things weren't going well. We have been there for each other several times, she doesn't give me crap about the hours I work or when I don't have time to talk like we wish we could.

I have lots of other on-line friends as well and am making more on the boards here. Thanks to everyone who listens and responds. I'm not sure I could go back to just the "off-line" friends I have anymore. I know I don't want to.

 

[SpecialK]

No clue where this came from or who wrote it, but it seemed appropriate.


You know me not for who I am,
but through only the words I say...
We speak from our hearts and souls online
without our flesh and fears to get in the way...

I get to know the real you
and what you're all about...
Your hopes and dreams you can relay
beyond a shadow of a doubt...

I know your heart's a giving one
and mine reaches out for you...
You are a friend I can count on
to always see me through...

Without the flesh there is no wall
to keep our hearts at bay...
An open book I am for you
each and everyday...

A smile a wink a kiss or two
Is all that we really miss...
But sweetie all you've given me
has made my life true bliss...

I thank you for your kindness
and your unconditional love...
For God was looking down at me
and sent you from above...

Today I hope I'm sending you
a smile to help you make it through...
For sweetie you have given me a friendship I treasure
just by being you...

I hope to find you here online
each and everyday...
To brighten up the sorrows
and make them go away...

I will always be your friend
for our friendship's in our hearts...
Though miles stretch long between us
we will never be apart...

You know me not for who I am
and yet your my best friend...
So sweetie I will say goodbye for now
Until we meet again...


A bit corny, but fitting, don't you think? Again, no idea who wrote it or where it's from.

K

 

[Matthew D]

Special K

Thanks I liked the poem... nice..

 

[Budman]

I consider myself very fortunate in that I've "met" and become friends with folks from all over the world in my relative short time on line. I will not name names (well only one) because I know I'd leave someone out inadvertantly. But you, my friends, know who you are, and how much i look forward to chatting with you.
I was extremely fortunate to make the acquaintence of my bestest friend in the whole world in Literotica. Some one that I can share anything with (and have). Someone that is always there when I need to vent, when I'm troubled, when I need advice. Someone that senses when I'm sad, and always succeeds in making me smile. My rock in the stormy sea of life many, many times. I can't wait to meet her face to face, and tell her personally what a friend she has been to me, how very much I appreciate her allowing me to become a friend.
*Raising a glass in a toast to my bestest friend*

Busty, I Love You Baby, and so does Budlady. Thanks for everything Busty.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

So I'm the only dick?

No, I don't treasure my on line friends as much as my real life friends.

Don't get me wrong, as I've said a billion times, I like and respect most of you -- but I don't know you, and you don't know me, and I can't treasure someone who doesn't know me. Yes, I'm private and all that and I don't let people know me, blah-blah-blah, but even if I told you every deep dark secret in my life it's still just words on a screen not nuance and action.

I like most of the people I've met on line, but, as the woman said, "What's love got to do with it?" For me it's more than just like and respect, it's the day to day interaction, live and human, that makes a friendship worth treasuring. It's the laughter during story telling and baby-sitting for each other's kids and having dinner party conversations and playing softball on the weekends and creating film projects together and holding your hand at a funeral and the myrriad number of other active things that truly cement a friendship that can't happen over a 56K Modem.

That being said, I TOTALLY recognize that others have made bonds on line that I haven't, and that they regard these relationships every bit as intimately as I do mine, and I know how real they are. I only speak for myself.

 

[Siren]

You mean you DONT treasure me DCL???

 

[Dillinger]

Dixon... you're lucky... *smile*

I have strong opinions on this subject. I've thought about this a lot over the years... Life takes us all in interesting and unexpected directions. When we were children... and even in college we CHOSE our friends. It was easy - there were hundreds of kids to choose from all through school... there were hundreds, even thousands of potential friends in college - in the dorms, in your classes...

Then... we leave school... take a job... eventually perhaps buy a house in a neighborhood that we chose for many reasons but probably not because of who the neighbors were.

Do you all know what I mean?

I have good friends still, that I made in school, in college... I keep in touch with them but I don't see them every day - don't interact with them regularly (though email has opened the door for staying in touch more frequently.)

I did not choose my neighbors. Both where I live now and where I lived for years before this - I have very little in common with any of my neighbors. Most of them are not the type people I would have chosen to be my friends in school/college. I'm not saying they're bad people - I just don't have much in common with them. I've made one pretty good friend in the neighborhood - and have other friends that I've made through work who live around the country - in as my job has me travelling frequently.

The online communities are much like the choices we had when we were younger. Just here, at Lit alone, there is quite a good sized membership. I am getting to know some of the people here. I can't say I've met anyone I truly dislike. I've met a lot of very nice, interesting people AND I've met a few who I have MUCH in common with who I would consider true and close friends. The kind of people one seldom gets to know "in real life."

Some of you might have jobs that bring you regularly in contact with people you have much in common. Those jobs might even provide you the opportunity to live in a neighborhood where you also come in contact with many potential friends.

But I don't believe that is the case for most of us?

There is another point that some here have touched on... That, for many of us, behind the "anonymity" of our online aliases - we are often more willing to express things that we would not do so to our co-workers/neighbors/friends/mates etc. Hell - if I acted at work the way I do here I would have been charged with sexual harassment a long time ago! But even beyond sex - people tend to be more open. And as we interact with the same people over time we may start to share more "personal" real life info - perhaps in public - and even more so in private. And those relationships may be built on more of "who we are" than many of the relationships that we have developed in real life.

On other sites, in other days - I've mentioned this before - I've used the name Aleister. Many years ago I was honored to be asked to officiate at an online wedding. We believe this may have even been the very first ever online wedding. Since then I have taken the archives and rewritten what took place in real time to make it more readable to someone who didn't know the participants. It contains many of the same concepts I still believe. So if anyone is interested... http://soiuser.hyperchat.com/aleister/Wedding.htm






[Edited by Dillinger on 03-05-2001 at 12:14 PM]

 

[Xander]

Maybe it's me who is weird. BUt I can honestly say, that since I became overly active online. Through online friends, communities and even flings.
My life has taken a turn which I otherwise wouldn't have had a chance of living out.

It started in the small, as always. But since I came to Literotica in 99' Life was truely changed for me.

Some of you know, what I am talking about. Most of you dont. But the point is, that I came to a place of understanding.
I came to meet people, I otherwise would have had any chance what so ever, to meet.

Like Dillinger says, I've met more people here which I have things in common with, than I ever did IRL.
Now that's not saying I dont appreciate my RL (Yes Ugly ugly term) Friends. Because I do.

What I however AM saying is. That those I've met online, have had an impact like none other. And quite litterally been a life changing experience.

On this rollercoaster we call "the internet" I've been both all the way up there between the skies. I have also been way down there at the gates of hell.

Those of you I've talked to, and have become a part of my life. Is very very important to me.
In some cases more than any of you will ever know.

What I am trying to say here is this:

Before I met you, Xander lived in hiding. Only a small shadow of the guy you see here.
YOU brought that out. YOU were the ones that gave me courage enough to face the world again. And listen, and go, where my heart is telling me to go.

That was you. My online friends.

THAT is why I say you're important. THAT'S why I hold you close to my heart.

 

[LAVA GODDESSS]

YOU KNEW I had to post...

I completely agree. I cherish most of my online friendships. In fact, I believe they are based on what a true friendship should be, the mind. No physical boundries or judgements.

I think my friends via online have gotten me through more turmoils than my 'here' friends.

I know you all know who you are, You know what you have done for me, you know how much I value you.

Xander, great thread. Almost made me cry. ALMOST.

Licks and WIggles...
The one and only...well probably not the only
LAVA GODDESSS a.k.a. Mon(ique)

 

[Ask For More]

I need some online friends first...
*sniff*

 

[SpecialK]

^5 Xander!

I have meet hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people online. Just as I have met thousands of people in real life. As it is though, I only have a handful of online friends I treasure greatly. Just like I have a handful of real life friends who are like gold to me.

The greatest treasures I've found online haven't necessarily been the friendships I've made, although that's part of it, but rather the self-realizations and self-acceptance I've found.

Xander said:
Like Dillinger says, I've met more people here which I have things in common with, than I ever did IRL.

That's just it. Online you can find the kindred spirits with such greater ease. Funny, I have yet to see a church bulletin announcing the next meeting of the Porn Writers Club.

Xander said more:
Before I met you, Xander lived in hiding. Only a small shadow of the guy you see here.
YOU brought that out. YOU were the ones that gave me courage enough to face the world again. And listen, and go, where my heart is telling me to go.

I so relate, Xan. K hid also. Heck, looking back over the years I've been online, I cannot even imagine the B.C (Before Chat) days.

I feel quite introspective today. I could go on, but I fear quite a lengthy soliloquy will result.

K

 

[April]

{{{{{{{{{{{{{Xander}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}


Oooh, one of the rare hugs! LOL Do you feel honored yet? And you know I'd do it in person, too. Right before we get thrown out of the restaurant for being too loud! LMAO