Sunday, July 22, 2012

Friends Are Friends

The other day my friends Koas and Olle were brought up in conversation and someone said, "But you met them on the internet" as if this fact somehow made our friendship less real.
To be honest, it bugged me quite a bit.

We live in a world where the people we meet do not always have to be seen in person.
We might meet them on an internet forum, Xbox Live, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, etc.
And, if they seem legit enough, we build relationships with them.
Or you might be stupid and fall for a con or something, but that's not what I'm talking about today.

Last November I met two people who I would later consider two of my very good friends.
I'll be honest, when I first started talking to them, I struggled with understanding what they were saying.
I guess that's my Southern American-ness coming back to bite me. :)

It was my best friend Paige who told me to get on Xbox that day. Her message read, "Get on Xbox! There are guys with accents! :)". And so I got on Xbox.
The Guys With Accents turned out to be Koas (he's English) and Olle ( he's Swedish), and I felt like an idiot because I kept having to say, "What?" because I couldn't understand them half the time. I don't remember if my accent caused them problems or not. :)

It didn't really make sense for me to have problems understanding Koas, I had grown up with Harry Potter and other shows or movies that had a primarily British cast. But for whatever reason, I was having issues and I felt reallly stupid.
It turned out not to matter though, I got used to both of their accents pretty fast. Occasionally, I still have problems with their slang :) 

We started talking on Skype, which is one of my favorite inventions. The biggest problem? The time difference. Koas is six hours ahead of me and Olle is seven hours ahead. So as soon as I got off the bus (this was before I could drive) I would make a beeline for my room and log on to talk to them.
Olle even tried to teach me some Swedish once. It turns out that I'm too American for his fancy pants language :)

The point is, it doesn't matter how you meet someone. Friends are friends, no matter how far away they are.
I tell Koas and Olle more than I tell some of my friends who live just down the street from me.
And, they never fail to make me laugh :)

Peace, love, and British Television,
Sara


4 comments :

  1. This is great! I met two of my very best friends online, and I've never seen them in person. Friendship is about laughing, talking, and opening up. Who says you have to be next to someone to do that?

    ~Stephanie

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  2. Exactly the way I feel :) Hopefully next summer I'll be on a plane to Europe!
    ~Sara

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  3. omg not even joking, i love it when you blog about me and olle :D this has made my day :) your awesome sara! fingers crossed for next summer! :D

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  4. Aw :) Well, I'm glad that I made you happy! :) And yeah, me too!
    ~Sara

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