Several posts back I first mentioned that I'm also a part of another online community besides this Xanga/Facebook one. Well, I figure I've danced around the topic long enough.
Those who know me well know that I'm a
Survivor fanatic. Like seriously, I will have to cry myself to sleep when this show eventually goes off the air (18 seasons and counting!). Haha, I've been hooked since that first episode aired when I was just thirteen years old. I love it.
Three years ago I came to the sudden realization that people were playing
Survivor online.
Online. Like, a host would go to various forums/sites and ask for applications, people would apply, and a select number of those applicants would play
Survivor. Competitions would take place via the host's online challenges and communication between players would occur via forums and instant messaging with each other. For a fanatic like me, this was the most incredible thing I'd ever discovered. I had to play!
In the summer of 2006 I played in my first of three online Survivor games. I was so psyched. You have
no idea. For those next several weeks I lived and breathed this game; it was all I could think about. When I eventually got voted out of the game it was a huge shock and to be honest, it was tough to adjust to life without the game after that!
Yes, I needed (...and still need...) help.
I say all that to not really talk about the game itself. But the people. And in particular, one unique guy who - quite honestly - is the greatest male friend I've ever had. As an inside joke between me and him (even though he obviously won't be reading this anytime soon), I'll refer to him as Mikey. Ah, Mikey. He was one of the people that voted me out of that game and if you were to tell me in the wake of that crushing blow that me and him would be great friends three years later, I'd have cried BS.
Well, we have.
He messaged me a couple months after the game ended (he WON, by the way). Completely out of the blue. I never had a thought of speaking to him again. The game was over; that was that. Life goes on. But message me he did, and I'm so glad. Because we haven't stopped messaging each other since.
He and I just share a very similar wit and sense of humor. Granted he's a little "coarser" than I am (me=Christian; he="lazy Catholic" [his own description]). But we've shared a ton of laughs the past three years. We have similar interests too that go far beyond the show
Survivor. We both love to write, for one. And as a cool little tidbit, he currently lives in the Philadelphia area - where I called home for the first twelve years of my life. Seriously, the things we share in common are uncanny. The fact that we're still in communication after all these years is even moreso. I've had a couple good guy friends in my life, but for whatever reason they've all seemed to fade over time. But not Mikey.
There have been stretches in these three years where we didn't talk to each other for several months at a time. But he'd always "come back" and we'd catch up right where we left off. And going through those tough college years was a heck of a lot easier having someone like him to talk to a lot. Whenever we IM, our conversations last for hours upon hours. And they go by so fast too. I've never talked with anyone quite like him.
During one of our first conversations we had quite the lengthy talk about my faith and Christianity in general. It was really cool. He'll poke fun at my faith here and there, but it isn't done maliciously or anything. I think he respects it. And my hope and prayer is that eventually I'll rub off on him.
We Skype'd for the first time last week. Finally. It was great. And I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I meet him face-to-face and in person someday. I hope that my novel and simply my life in general will indeed "rub off" on him and that he'll come to know Christ as his Savior and Lord. Man...I get all giddy when I think of that possibility. I like to think of it as God sending him into my life to help sustain me through the lonely college years; and God sending me into his life so that he might come to know Him someday. Seriously, it'd be awesome. So send up a prayer for Mikey if you get the chance. And for me, that I'd be a good light for him. He's not just some random dude online "out there" somewhere. He's a real person...and he's really lost. I pray everyday for him.
There's another part to this online
Survivor community that I definitely need to discuss. It's where my SSA figures into the equation. The possibility here could be equally as awesome.
Comments (1)
I enjoyed your post. Can't wait for Part 2.