A Familiar Stranger

I've had that experience several times. After knowing someone for years on the internet you meet and after you get past the person actually having a physical presence it's like you've known each other all those years "for real". It only takes a couple minutes to adjust to their having an actual face. I'm glad you got to meet your friend. It's always such a treat to meet and online friend!

No, that hasn't ever happened to me, but it must be nice when it does. I'm sure a lot of times it's more the case that you get to know someone really well online, (or at least you think you do), but when you meet them you don't feel the same connection. I'm really glad that it felt natural with your friend in the flesh. I hope you carry on being real-life as well as virtual friends!

I used to be very active in my local Freecycle group, and made some great friends through it. One day, Janet decided to have a yard sale and I went as a surprise. Our kids were only a couple of years apart in age, so I brought Sydney along. Sydney and Olivia hit it off, as did Janet and I. Her husband Mike and I got along quite well too-my former employer used to deal with his company on some major projects, plus the three of us were all graphic art designers. We all have a similar sense of humor, which made it easier the first time we met. And another moderator from the group showed up-and he was amazed that Janet and I had only met five minutes earlier!

I never met up with any mylotter. If it happens it would be great pleasure for me. May be some friends of mylot come to my country but they don't get interest to contact with me. Because they remain busy with site seeing.

I have only met one Mylotter and you are right, it is like you know them even though you have never met before. You know their personality and what they are interested in so you can converse naturally as if you have met them several times. We have a bit of an online presence with our business so we meet people all the time who we have only ever known online. We have even had quiet a few rock up to stay at our house even though we had never met them in real life before. That was not always the wisest thing to do. Sometimes we met some awesome people, others were a bit of a handful to have as house guests!

I hope for that to happen to me one day. I've never actually met up with anyone I've met on the internet. I imagine it would be nice to meet some of them but I'm not exactly a social butterfly so I might just be really awkward when I meet them for the actual first time.

First of all, P1kef1sh, I should say THANK YOU for welcoming me to your city and for the meal at a very pleasant local hostelry and for the tour of your marvellous cathedral! I have been meaning to write and thank you but was waiting to get my hands on something worthy of enclosure. It really wasn't the best of days on which to travel 60 miles to see the beauties of an ancient cathedral city. I did finally take my camera from its case (after we had parted) but the results don't at all do justice to a fine cathedral and some very attractive town buildings. I, too, had that impression of old friends meeting, perhaps after a long absence ... certainly not one of meeting for the first time. I had, of course, seen photos of you on Facebook and had even heard your voice on a video which you put up. For me, there was none of that awkwardness or feeling for points of agreement which one sometimes finds are necessary when one meets a stranger. Maybe we are both good at meeting new people and 'getting along' ... finding common ground easily. I think, though, that it was much more of a realisation that we were more or less 'from the same mould' (we both were, apparently, raised in University towns with fathers who were academics). I have occasionally met people face-to-face for the first time whom I felt that I knew pretty well from online communications. I have nearly always felt that 'easiness' which comes from knowing small parts of someone's life and philosophy with some intimacy. Having seen a photograph sometimes helps but, very often, I have found that the face matches exactly with the person I had imagined from the online conversations.

I have met a few online acquaintances but there has not been any sort of familial connection such as you mention, in fact, after the meeting the acquaintance ceased; which was not necessarily a bad thing.

hi pikefish a few years back a m ylotter friend of nmine whom I always enjoyed so emailed me that her mom lived here in G arden Grove not far from Gold Crest. So we got to met, and she was so like her warmth in her discussions I was talking to her like we had always known each o ther. She and I are in that photo thats myh avatar on Facebook there i am Patsie Hatley I am the grey haired lady with the quad cane shes the strawberry blonde. a lovely person and she brought a paper with 79 signatures of mylotters who asked her to give me hatley a hug. it was a lovely meeting and I was so overcome with her warmth.I still have that paper lol lolI wo uld give her user name but my lot might not like that.shes a lovely warm lady.

There's one on here, keeps pretty anonymous, that I feel that way about...

Hi p1key! I still have never been fortunate enough to meet any of my mylot friends "in person". In fact, I've only spoken to two of them on the phone! I feel with some "lotters" that I have met them because we've connected through personal emails. I wish that I could have "face to face" meetings. I think that would be incredible! Still hoping it might happen someday! By the way, when are you coming to NY?

I've met many people in person who originally became friends through various online sites, and all meetings have seemed very natural. Getting to know some one online, you may not be aware their physical attributes, but you get to know their thoughts and how they feel. Personally, I find those more important. Many of us are taught that when we pass on, we leave our bodies behind but our essence, or soul, lives on. Hopefully when we get there, there are others with whom we can interact with, sans bodies. Doesn't seem a lot different than getting to know some one online, does it?

hi dear P1ke that sounds familiar. I also met a mylotter recently and it was such a pleasant time we had. It also was as if we had known each other for a long time already. We are friends in mylot and facebook so we knew quite a bit about each other before meeting in person. This sure was helpful.......