UnlistedDog

I know several people whom I've never met. The internet can do that. It's an interesting thing, really. I had some friends up in Manchester, NH, only a few minutes away, whom I got to know very well without ever meeting them. When I was planning on my trip to Dallas, I realized that I was going to be near one of my friends that I know through an online gaming group that I was in. So with a few pm's and exchange of contact info, we were all set to meet up with each other. "UnlistedDog" was the name I knew him as. He knew me as "Stevorso". With my camera in hand, I went to meet up with this person who I knew, but had not laid eyes on. A kid, really; the internet tends to take away that bias, though. You take people as they act, not how they look or how you expect them to act. He was 15, though; and it's not uncommon for me to hang out with that group of people. "Peter" (as he was called in RL) was a short guy. I wasn't expecting that, lol. But what we found out was that meeting each other physically was really not much different than how we related online. We were the same people, except that we could see each other, pretty much. Yes, a few things different obviously, but it was in no way like meeting someone new. We talked, played N64, and just chilled for the afternoon with his little brother "TinyTank". It was a pretty interesting meeting looking back. It was important to me to help me remember that the people I know online live real lives just as I do; but also that we have no less of a friendship because it is online.