For as long as I can remember, I’ve been playing video games. While the internet can be an amazing place, it can also be pretty scary because you never know who’s out there. When I was in middle school, I was obsessed with Minecraft. I loved watching people play it and I wanted to play it myself. My Dad got me a copy of the game for PC, and I was so happy about it.

After I started playing, I quickly found some servers to play on. There was one server that I got very involved with and I quickly made friends. We would use an application called Teamspeak to talk or Skype. While making friends, I was able to befriend someone who was really well-known on the server. Let’s say his name is J. One day, J wanted to invite all his friends to one big Skype call so, that’s what he did. I didn’t know any of these people but in that call was a girl named Sara. After the big group call ended, Sara and I started talking on our own time.

We got to know each other, and we became pretty good friends over the years. When I was learning information about her, she mentioned that she also lived in New York City so we planned to meet up. My mom was very skeptical about me, a 14 year-old, meeting someone on the internet. She advised me not to go but I went anyways. I met Sara at her house and it was a great time. I met her family, we chilled and just talked, and we ate snacks and watched movies. Ever since that day out bond grew stronger and I talk to her almost everyday. She’s easily one of my best friends and our meeting story is a little weird. However, it paid off so well.