You know
I had the strangest dream last night
A dream that I met a girl online
All the way from halfway across the world
Someone who I had never seen in my entire life
Someone who I never spoke with
Someone who I never even knew existed
Literally halfway across the earth
Seven-billion people on this planet
And for whatever reason
For whatever purpose
For whatever cause
We started talking one day in the dream
Well...messaging
And messaging...
And messaging...
At first in the dream, it was basic questions
Like where we were from
What we enjoyed doing
How we came to meet
It seemed like she had a million questions for me
It was almost overwhelming
Considering at this point in our relationship I was rather closed off
I even made a silly joke in the dream that she should be a reporter
From all the answers I had to constantly come up with
I remember quite clearly that she found that funny
As time went on in the dream, I slowly opened up to her
Like a flower blooming in the spring
One day she eventually convinced me to do a picture swap
And so I did
I sent her an old picture of my junior year high school photo
She told me that she was surprised
As I didn't resemble the negative attributes and aura that I had built online
And that I looked like a soft, gentle soul
At the time I didn't believe her
But I decided to keep this developing friendship going
As time went on in the dream, I started getting more comfortable with this girl
I began sending her silly videos of me that would make her laugh
At least those were the kinds of messages I'd get back from her
At this point, the two of us were now messaging on a daily basis
Yet sometimes we'd be in different time zones and would have to reply later
Considering she and I were on the opposite side of the world
Keep in mind we never once verbally talked with one another in the dream
Not a single time
No live communication
We did send each other audios or random, joking videos
I teased her when I heard her strong accent
She told me she hated her accent
But even though I teased her, I assured her that it really wasn't that bad
And that everyone has an accent in reality
As even more time went by in the dream, our conversations started getting more personal
We messaged about romantic crushes and relationships we had on specific individuals in our past lives
She was older than me, by several years
But it really didn't matter
She felt like my same age
And we were getting along great
Eventually, even though we had zero verbal or physical connection
We confessed our feelings for one another
It was so strange
As I said, I'd never met this girl in my entire life
But during the span of this dream, I had fallen for someone halfway across the world through the tap of a screen
She told me right to my face
Well, to the screen
"I like you back"
It was quite something
In the dream we talked about basketball
As I had a burning passion for the sport in my earlier years
In a flirting way
She was not happy when I told her I loved LeBron James
And that he was my childhood hero for many years
She went on to explain that Michael Jordan was the true GOAT (greatest of all time)
So we started arguing in a fun way
I told her a funny story of when LeBron dressed up as Batman for Halloween
She told me that he could never be Batman
And that he should stick to whining on the court
Which even me as a number-one fan
I admitted he did a lot of
I guess girls always get the last word when it comes to an argument
We even went as far as talking about meeting in person one day throughout the dream
After the COVID pandemic ended of course
She told me she'd take me to the finest waffle house in all of Belgium if I were to come to Europe
Or vice versa
I suggested I'd take her to all the cool mountain bike trails I'd mentioned throughout our messages if she were to travel to Canada
The dream was almost like a perfectly-written love story
Having said that, not everything was rainbows and sunshine between us
I was struggling with mental health
And would often give her mixed signals
Confusing her as to what was going on
Considering we never once verbally talked in the dream
And everything was through our phones
It was frustrating and hard for her to understand
Now that the dream is over and looking back
I was so toxic and negative
But at the same time, we had so much fun and could relate
That we'd naturally just start chatting again as if nothing happened
As our relationship went deeper
I started sending more silly videos of me making her laugh
They were made cringey on purpose
Like me pretending I was a gangster and pretending to be a thug
Stupid things
Half of my photo roll was of me sending her comical videos and pictures
And I still have them to this very day
Regardless, things did not last forever
A full year of our online friendship was now coming to a close
I noticed her messages were becoming less and less
When we first started talking, I'd get a reply within minutes
But minutes turned into hours
Hours turned into days
And days turned into weeks
There was no one to blame but myself
My toxic behaviour eventually pushed her just too far
She had given up on me at this point in the dream
And rightfully so
She did everything she could to help me
But in the end
It was me who was unable to help myself
As of now we had completely lost communication in the dream
It's not until you lose someone who you like
That you realize how much they meant to you
And how you took that person for granted so many times in the heat of your own problems going on
And never really acknowledged how they tried to help and care for you
And so I woke up the following morning
Shocked at the fact that I had such a complex, descriptive dream
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes
Stretched my arms and back
And got up to use the bathroom
I looked in the washroom mirror
Splashing water on my face
Again, reflecting on the crazy dream I had last night
I thought about how cool, yet sad it would have been to actually experience something similar with a particular individual
I assured myself at that moment
That if I did get another opportunity like that
A chance to really be grateful for someone who liked me
That I would never...ever again show that same arrogance to such a person
But just like that, I snapped myself back to reality, and carried on with my day
Because in the end
It was only a dream