Dear T,

When we first met, I didn't like you because, much like the rest of the online community, I felt criticized for my work. I didn't know how to take positive criticism and, yet, you stood by me until I understood your intentions. You were just trying to be helpful, but then again that's what you always did. You have helped me in so many ways, for so many years at times when I had no one else to turn to. You were my best friend and for a while my only friend. You were an incredible writer and you thought I was, too. I didn't realize what I had in me until you guided me and shaped me to become better-- not only with printed words, but also as a human being.

As a teenager, it was a very confusing time but you were still there, just a click away to help me out. Ever since elementary school, I was lonely and it had only gotten worse when I moved. I had nothing more than familial support, but with certain circumstances, even that sense of love begins to fade as your true colors come to light and people can come to hate you for your difference. I had lost the sense of being loved by anyone and I felt completely isolated and trapped within my own being.

I remember one day in particular when I was alone hating myself because I thought no one else liked me or thought I had value as a person. You were the only person I felt I could trust with my emotions. Luckily I read your email before it was too late. You told me to stop. You were the only person who told me what I needed to told. I needed to feel loved. Who knew someone I had never seen or heard living hundreds of miles away from me would be with me telling me that I was worth something? I sat there with my life in my hands, but I stopped. You wrote me an email where you hoped you weren't too late. You weren't. I was okay.

Several years into our friendship, I felt that I had grown up with you. Each year I felt stronger than the last until I graduated high school. You expressed how proud you were of my accomplishments in my social and personal life. You played the role of everyone that I felt was missing from my life. Through you I learned what it meant to be a true friend. I realized being a friend meant being there for others for the worst and best of times; selflessness and unconditional love. As time went on, we grew up to become the busy adults we are today. Daily conversations turned into weeks and eventually months without a word. In a way, I was glad that I had built up enough emotional strength to live my life independently from you. I have friends now and people who love me and, yet, I have always kept you in my thoughts and referred to you as my best friend.

It saddens me that such an amazing person as yourself has disappeared into a void in cyberspace. I often wonder if you feel alone and if you're floating in darkness. I was too young to understand your problems but now that I'm older and wiser, I wish I could have been there for yours. You saved my life and now I've made it my mission to do the same for others. My life goal is to be the person I needed when I when I was at my most vulnerable state. I hope that I can help save someone else and change their way of life for the better in the way you have done for me.

Thank you for being the strong and loving person you are. I will never forget you.

Your dearest friend,

A