biography: Justin, a far-away friend

I lived in Texas, he lived in Hawaii. We never actually met, but we clicked as if we had known each other for years.

I met Justin through a mutual friend who used to attend my school in Texas. She was from Hawaii and eventually she went back, but we still kept in touch and she always updated me about her life, including her friends. That's how I came to know Justin. 

It started with a follow on Instagram, and from there I can't tell you how everything unfolded after, but a follow back turned into texting, which turned into facetime calls. Looking back, it's pretty funny and kind of strange to think about. I had never met this guy, he lived 9 hours away, yet he became my favorite people to talk to. 

Sometimes my stupid romantic, fantasy mind would imagine us dating and doing the long-distance thing. I would imagine scenarios where we would overcome the 9 hour difference and the ocean between us, as silly as that sounds. In the end though, I wasn't that naive. I knew we would probably never meet but no matter what, I still enjoyed talking to him.

It was always fun to brag about how I basically had a pen-pal in Hawaii. It was also nice because he didn't really know any of my friends, so I could talk about anything without judgments. Even though I didn’t know he deepest, darkest secrets, talking to him made my day. For some reason, it was easier for someone thousands of miles away to understand me than it was for my own classmates.

Even though we still follow each other on social media, we stopped communicating daily. I don’t remember how we started to distance ourselves, I just remember that one day, the facetimes stopped. Nevertheless, I’m happy to look back on the memories and every now and then, we still catch up with each other.

Honolulu, HI is where he lived. Picture Source.