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