Online Pals/Friends

I've made a lot of friends online, maybe as many or even more than in-person. I feel like online, it's easier to make friends because you're looking in places of specific interests. Like on here, we're all to some degree Pokemon enthusiasts, so we have that much in common, as well as other things. Even interacting in the Forum Games section, interacting with regulars like Roni and Starlight makes me feel connected to them.

Back when I was on Wattpad regularly, I found a little friend group and we were all Pokemon fans. Vannah, LittleLitten11, Pikagirl1527, FiveAnimals, and the one I was closest to was TheTheoryFroakie. We battled each other on Showdown a few times.

The one online place where I don't really make friends is Discord. In the servers I'm in, I don't talk that much. The most I do is send memes. I also don't check in that much, so I end up missing out on conversations. That said, I have one really good Discord friend. We're both mods on another Pokemon forum, so we kinda had to be in the Discord server. We watched some movies together (they screen shared on Disney+) and battled each other on Showdown too. I haven't messaged with them in a while, but I'm glad we're friends.

I've made a lot of online friends over the years, a lot of whom I've drifted apart with lol. First was that Pokemon Netbattle clan back in 2007, then Tumblr in 2011/12 - these two stand out to me since I was close to a lot of people there - we traded a lot on the Gen V/VI games, or just talked for hours on end. Yeah I'm not the best at maintaining online friendships since I haven't talked to those folks in years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've made some friends, though not a lot. Though, a bunch of them I haven't talked to in a while...I've also had a friendship go up in flames in the worst ways possible.

I want to say that there are still some acquaintances, especially on PC, and I'm very grateful for that. Friendship is not a think people should take for granted. Well, I guess people who have an easy time making friends don't really have that much pressure in that regard. ^^"

TBH, 2021 was the best time for me on Discord.

I became active in PC, met some really sweet people, became friends with them, had streams, and lots of fun stuff! Birthday was the day it just got like, 1000x sweeter, all these people coming up to me and wishing me. Some don't even know how I look, almost none of them have seen me IRL. Yet they were coming to wish me. It really was tough to hold back tears that day! :')

So I'll say, cherish your friendships people. Take some time, maybe a minute from your day, to make your friend feel special. Even if it's just sharing a meme, do it. ^^

Offline or online, a friend is a friend!