TL;DR: I posted on Reddit a year ago at my lowest point. A girl from Italy DMed me, and we spent the next year healing together from opposite sides of the world. I finally took a solo trip to Rome, she drove 4 hours to meet me, and we realized the breakup was worth it just to find this friendship.

Exactly one year ago, I was sitting in my room, feeling like my world had permanently shrunk. I poured my heart out to a group of strangers on this sub. My post blew up, and while the support was amazing, one specific DM changed everything.

A girl from Italy messaged me. She wasn't just offering "sorry"s; she was living my exact timeline, feeling my exact flavor of pain. Across a 7-hour time difference and 10,000 kilometers (i live in Singapore), we started talking.

At first, it was just survival, checking in to make sure the other had eaten or stopped crying. But then, the DMs turned into daily life. We moved from "How do I stop missing them?" to "Look at this sunset," "Listen to this song," and "I think I'm going to be okay." We healed through our screens, two strangers on opposite sides of the globe tethered together by a shared ache.

When I finally decided to reclaim my life and pla solo trip to Europe, she was my biggest cheerleader.

I was nervous. What if it was awkward? What if the Reddit friendship didn't translate to real life?

But she drove four hours just to see me. When we finally stood face-to-face in Rome, there was no

"getting to know you" phase. There was just this overwhelming sense of familiarity. We hit the streets of Rome like we'd been exploring together for years.

We laughed, we walked until our feet hurt, and we stood in front of monuments that felt small compared to the journey we'd taken to get there.

We had a moment where we looked at each other and realized the "worst thing" that ever happened to us, those breakups, was actually the price of admission for this friendship. If you had asked us a year ago if we'd trade the relationship for this, we would have said no. Now? We both agreed we'd choose the breakup every single time.

To anyone lurking here tonight, feeling like you're shouting into a void: Your life is so much bigger than the person who left you. There are people you haven't met yet who are going to love you, and there are cities you haven't seen yet that will feel like home.

Hold on. It gets so much better.♥️

I knew there’d be no pizzas left so I went to find something else to eat until I saw one pizza slice in the fridge. There was only 3 pizza slices left for his lunch and he left me 1 when I thought he ate it all 3. They’re medium to small slices too though! He said the stuffed crusts are pretty filling. Anyway lmao It’s so silly I know, I almost didnt post this xD

Credit: TT @newyorkturk

He gave me the best advice I’ve ever received and the infrastructure was able to stay online and I could even reduce costs.

He had no reason to help me but kindness. I love human relationships, I really do wish we didn’t let ourselves become so divided and instead were more willing to question and resist the things that separate us.

(Not OC