Online friendships can be real.

My friends. Where are they? Spread throughout the globe. Minnesota, Iowa, South Carolina, California, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Washington, Belgium, France, and Italy. Many people around me wonder and ask me, "How it is possible for you to call those who live so far away from you your friends?" and I always answer with "It just is." 
It all started in 2008, when I signed up for classes through a great Christian online school. It was since that year when I started creating relationships with people whom I had never met face to face. It was all behind our computer screens. It was all such a weird feeling, to know that my closest friends were living in a different country, and I had never met them in the "real" world. That is, until summer came around, and the school, Veritas Press, organized an End of the Year Gathering.... A special event, lasting one week, in which everyone from the school was invited to meet in one place, in which we would be finally able to meet those who became our friends through the online world. Definitely one of the most exciting experiences. It has always been my favorite week of the year, it is the one I have always looked forward to the most. Meeting and seeing those who you talk to behind a bright screen for an entire year is something very special. It is during that 5 day event when we are all as happy as ever.... Exchanging hugs and laughs, sharing smiles filled with joy, and tears when we say goodbye. We all look forward to that gathering... always. We all look forward to communion in the real world... all together. 
Today, I find myself here in my home in Mexico... starting summer, and coming back from my 4th End of the Year Gathering. I find myself sitting in front of my computer, typing this words, while I think of all my friends, whom I dearly miss. I think about how wonderfully blessed I am to know them, and that while some get to see their friends almost every day, and for me it is only once or twice a year, my relationships with them are real. And that is what matters. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that they really are. But that has never stopped me. The way we communicate is through blogs, messages, emails, phone calls, facebook, or letters sent through the mail. Of course, there have been many times in which I wished we all lived close, so we would never have to miss each other and wait 365 days till the next gathering. But it's not that way.... And I'm okay with it, really. I am amazed at how even though distance keeps us from seeing each other many times, our love towards each other is strong enough to keep us waiting until the day we see each other again.

♥

(These some favorite photos from this year's gathering.) 

God has blessed me so much... Friends are hard to find. Christian friends. 

But He has given them to me, no matter what. 

Have a great Friday. ♥ 

-Annie