I feel like i've known you my whole life

It's quite amazing the deep bonds you make with the people you play games with our talk to online. I'm sure, if you know someone who chats online regularly with people, that you've heard them say that they know more about these people than most of their friends in 'real' life. It reminds me a lot of a past relationship of mine.

In a short period of time I came to a point where I thought there was nothing more I could learn, and maybe I was right. We were together my entire teen and adult life up until a few months ago, but it only took a fraction of that to get to the point where there wasn't much left to talk about. Aside from my depressing parallel, this occurs frequently between people across the world.

Two people in a gaming community I belong to recently moved in with each other, after meeting online not too long ago. I talked to her, and all she could tell me was how much in love she is with this man. If online relationships aren't in 'real life', then how can this girl, who believes and feels with her heart that this is true love, really experience it? These relationships are more real than we give credit to. They're as real as any friendship, whether you meet from a class you're in, or work, simply walking down the street, or sitting at a computer telling each other your stories.

I've personally experienced this more recently than a few months ago. I've found several people who have recently come into my life, whether in a small or large way. They've helped me realize things about myself, allowed me to see things in a different perspective, and I genuinely enjoy spending several hours of my day with them, even if it's only small talk. I feel these people, who I don't even know their real names, connect with me better than many people I've met in passing. The commonalities between us clearly assist in why we feel these connections to these people.

These people, whom you probably only know by an alias they go by online, also have real names they keep a secret. This alias is good enough for us, though. Is someone's real first name important? The answer is fairly simple: it isn't. We go months, years even, without knowing each others' first name; and even once we do know their name, we seldom use it. Our alias is as good as our real name, and our stories, regardless of our name are the same. This alias is a name we think of almost randomly. It can be a word or phrase that means something to us personally, or just a funny phrase they heard once before. If nothing else, it just gives them more to talk about.

You share a game of poker, a night of laughs and drinks, a highly competitive tournament, or just stories of your lives, and you wake up one day feeling like this is how it's always been. Like these faceless, nameless voices aren't really faceless or nameless at all; that they too are just like you, sitting there and sharing their life with you. It's like you've known these people your whole life.