When I started an online relationship, I honestly wasn't looking for it. It fell in my lap at a vunerable time in my life. A friendship turned into something more and lastest for almost two years after.

I by no means regret venturing into an online relationship, it helped me grow and discover parts of me I didn't know. I was never an advocate for online dating, I believed that it was so impersonal. Couldn't believe that you could fall in love with someone you have never met before and thus didn't actually know. Yet that's exactly what happened...

It happened several years ago, I met him on a popular website for art. He lives in Europe and I'm from the States. We originally "watched" eachother's artwork sometime before we actually began talking. Simple comments back and forth on pieces eventually led to a curiosity of the other and we soon started exchanging emails. I could tell that I was becoming more interested in a relationship beyond a friendship and he told me that he was feeling the same before I even voiced it. After a month or so, we started to call eachother with the help of Internet calling. From there our relationship turned serious, he took the first big step and came to visit. When he left we decided that the relationship was something we both really wanted and made the committment to a long distance relationship. We "dated" for nearly two years, I went to visit there, called almost every night and tried to send emails to stay close. Though with any relationship there are going to be struggles. So like any couple we had our fights, our disagreements. The problem was though, that with a long distance relationship you never really get to KNOW the person you are with. For instance, how they are at home, like their habits. What hit me like a ton of bricks was that I never got to know those skeletons in the closet until it was too late. There was a side to him that I vaguely knew about but could never fully question the issue because of the avoidance he gave me. So when I found out that he was being more than friendly with a woman there in his hometown, I was simply crushed. I never recovered back to the state of sheer devotion I had for him. I didn't trust him again after finding that out...especially when I discovered he was having another online relationship with someone else, that is something that makes you feel less than special. It hurt to be played such a way...

As time went on, our relationship only lasted another year. He had started to become a compulsive lair, to ease my worrying. Nothing he ever told me I believed anymore. Eventually, I was able to realize that I had to let that relationship go. I'm not on the negative side of this issue, as a matter of fact, I'm a supporter of online dating, if you really trust what you're feeling to be real. I know several people that had met online and made the sacrifices to be together. I just made the mistake to meet him at a hard time in his life as well. Anyone who is looking to start an online relationship needs to really get to know who they are with, but they deserve the praise to take on such a challenge when it comes to love...