We emailed and changed each other's lives

by Bob

ok... for about 2 years after a particularly rough break-up I used the Craigslist "missed connections" section as a cathartic message board. I left messages for the woman I had split with. The messages were mostly small poems or stray thoughts as I cleared out my head from the break-up. I knew she wouldn't read them, but posting them made them exist and made me feel better.

Occasionally, I would get random emails from people asking who I was writing to, or if it was them I was writing about. I never responded until one day I was sent some really interesting and crazy poetry by this girl Sarah.

Sarah email stalked me for about a year... sending poems, questions, random thoughts of her own and when the connection had finally built up into something substantial, she suggested we meet.

I think we recognized something in each other in our writing. I was "the older damaged but healing soul" who might have just enough extra to reach back and pull someone else through the fire... and she was "the lost soul with a lot of drama" looking for any sort of grounding experience.

Since I have a soft spot for train wrecks (having been one myself) We met for drinks, hit it off and started our relationship right then.

We dated for about 6 months and then she moved in. It lasted 3 years.

I got her to finish grad school, helped mend her relationship with her parents, worked on her drug problem, got her out of massive debt and got her to see a shrink to deal with some of her big scary issues. I also think I helped her emotionally mature and walk away from a version of her she hated.

In return, she gave me love, devotion, a great sex life and the opportunity for me to see my own life in a new perspective after having been exactly where she was

in retrospect, it's a little strange that I met a random stranger online via email, forged a friendship and completely changed her life and mine.

we still have a loose friendship

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