We Got to Know Each Other Online

by DC
(Killeen, TX)

It’s been almost two years and looking back I try to recall the beginning of my relationship with my current boyfriend, but cannot decipher where our true story begins. This may not be a typical online dating story, but it definitely began there.

It was over 5 years ago when we met in person for the first time through a mutual friend. He was in the Army and only home on leave. His duty station at the time was in paradise, otherwise known as Hawaii. Our first encounter was merely a “Hi” and “Bye” situation, which led to him befriending me on AOL Instant Messenger. The only thing we had in common was our friends; friends which I had only made a year before meeting him, and little did I know at the time that it would change my life.

As time went on we began chatting online and became friends on social networking sites such as Myspace and then Facebook. Our conversations went from an acquaintance stage to something much more than that when he had gotten deployed to Iraq in 2007.

As he was married at the time and I too had my own relationship in New Jersey, we were both hesitant about furthering our relationship together. Was it going to be worth it when we had never really spent any time together in person? The long chats online while he was away on deployment allowed us to open up to one another and learn things we had never known before. We were becoming each others best friend, and our entire friendship had taken place through the computer screen.

It was during his mid-tour leave that he came back to the states to his wife and child, while I remained loyal to my own situation. But that wasn’t enough. We crossed paths again one night during that time while with friends and tried to encourage ourselves from feeling anything more than feelings of friendship. But it was apparent to us after he returned to Iraq that a friendship was only a portion of what we wanted from one another.


In 2008 deployment was over, and he returned back home only to find himself alone as his wife and child left him. I was still in my own relationship, but was always there on the other end of the computer to lend an ear and listen to his problems and concerns about life. It was during this time that I completely began to fall for him, and although it may not have been right, I left my boyfriend at the time and passionately pursued this new relationship.

We had still not seen each other in months, but we believed that the time we had shared online and the phone would see us through and only make us stronger. We may live together now, but for the past year and a half we’ve been together as a couple we’ve spent it in a long distant relationship.

Once again we had to make things work through text messages, phone calls, and online chatting. But even to this day, I think that what makes us truly strong was the bond we formed while sitting at our computers desks typing away the things we may not have necessarily said to one another face to face. Any insecurities were lifted and we could be ourselves. So it may not be a true online dating story, but it’s our story and that’s how it began.

HOME to Senior Dating