Dear Andrea,
My story can be a rather lengthy one, but it means a lot to me.  I pretty much have the internet to thank for the great life that I have now.

Well, to start off, I am a 17 year old female and a senior in high school. I live in a small town about 45 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, Pa.  It all started just over 2 years ago.  It was the summer of 1998.  I was 14 years old and at the time had been dating a 17 year old I had met at an underage dance club for about 3 months.  It was one of those relationships that was little more than a good friendship, but hey, I was 14.  My parents didn't like the idea since he was almost 3 years older than me.  Well, it was coming to be close to the beginning of school, it was the end of August, and I had been really sick all week.

So as usual I turned to the internet to entertain me.  I had always been a person who loved chat programs, so I went on  ICQ and searched for people around my area.  By the time I was finished I had only added about a dozen people but only about a handful did I ever end up talking to.  But there was this one guy, Mark, who I hit it off with right away.  I wasn't looking for anything more than a friend to talk to, and this guy seemed like he'd be a great friend.  He was funny and he actually listened to me complain about my relationship with my boyfriend. We ended up talking a lot from there on, and most of the time he was the only reason I would go online, but he didn't know that.  He was the only person who could put me in a good mood no matter what.  He turned out to be the only person who I continued to talk to from my search that day.

After about a month or so we finally talked on the phone.  I was so nervous.  We were talking one day and I was telling him about how I played on a fast pitch softball team for a neighboring town, and it turned out that my team played the team that his sister played for.  I asked him, well more like begged him, to come to the game when we played each other, it was at his home field.  The game wasn't for a few weeks though.  He told me he'd try to go. When the day finally came I talked to him before the game, and he told me what he'd be wearing if he did go: jeans with a stripe down the side.  The entire time we were warming up I was as nervous as could be.  I kept scanning the area for a guy with a stripe down the side of his jeans. Finally, during the second inning I saw a guy on the hillside with a stripe down his jeans.  I about had a heart attack.  The rest of the game I tried to pretend like I didn't notice, but it didn't work too well.  After the game though, I couldn't find the mystery boy.  I was kinda disappointed, yet relieved at the same time.  But I raced to the computer as soon as I got home to see if he had been there.  Turns out he hadn't.  Mark was only 15 and didn't drive.  The field wasn't very close to his house so he had no way of getting there, but he did apologize.  He told me he'd try to go to the game in a few weeks when we played at my field.  By that game it would be October 8.

Meanwhile, I wasn't having a great "relationship" with my boyfriend, and I turned to Mark for help.  He did the same thing with me about his girlfriend.  They had only been together a few weeks though.  I can honestly say I was jealous when I found out he had a girlfriend.  It took me a lot of courage to tell him I liked him, I didn't want him to think I was stupid.  But when I did tell him, I made sure he really knew.  He told me he had liked me too.  I felt for sure he'd be coming to my game the next week.  Then, on the Friday before my game, October 2, 1998, one of my best friends threw a surprise 15th birthday party for me.  Supposedly my boyfriend had not stopped talking about it to my friend for the past week! How he was going to take me there and it would be so much fun and so forth. Well, guess what.  He never showed up!  I waited and waited.  I finally called him, and it turned out he had went out with another girl (supposedly they were just friends, they had been hanging out the past few weeks though that I knew of) to the pool hall.  He ended up breaking up with me over the phone at my party.  I hung up the phone and was about to cry when it just stopped.  I didn't have a reason to cry, he was a jerk, and the only person who I really cared about was Mark.  I told him what had happened that night, and I think he was happy.  All I focused on until that Thursday was my game and that Mark would be there.  When the day finally came I saw a guy who I thought was Mark sitting in the bleachers as I jogged out onto the field.  I tried to play it cool and pretend like I didn't see him.  I jogged out to the outfield backwards and almost killed myself by stepping in a hole.  Real slick.  I had a pretty good game.  While we were in the dugout during the game some of the girls on the team were commenting on the guys on the bleachers (one of them was Mark) and I just smiled and proudly said the one was mine, or soon would be.

After the game that night, I was walking out of the dugout with jitters.  I knew that I was actually about to meet Mark face to face.  I had only walked about 15 feet to the corner of the fence when it happened.  He was even more gorgeous than his picture.  We didn't exchange more than twenty words, but I can still picture the spot where we stood and the gravel I gently and nervously kicked under my cleat as we talked.  We left each other with a promise to talk online that night.  We talked that night and I was so happy.  We made plans to go to a neighboring school's football game the next night, my birthday.  I went to sleep with a smile engraved on my face that night!  When game night actually came, it was great.  We were there with other friends, but he just focused on me.  He had his arm around me as we leaned on the fence, during the game.  And even towards the end of the game when we were up by the school, he chased me around playfully and never let me go.  I never had so much fun just clowning around.  I didn't want to leave him that night.  I asked if I could see him the next day but he told me he had to go to a party that his girlfriend was having.  I asked over and over but still got the same answer.  Suddenly I didn't feel so special anymore.  But nevertheless, I waited that night for him to get on after the party.  When he did, I was expecting to hear how great the party was and how much fun he had.  Boy was I surprised.  He told me that at the end of the party, he took the ring off of his necklace that she had given him to wear, and handed it to her and left.  I was so happy it was unreal.  I actually thought that I had a chance now.

I didn't see him again until Monday night.  Mark came over my house.  I think we played basketball, maybe some video/computer games.  That night though, before his mother came to get him, we went to take my dog for a walk.  It was a nice long walk.  We talked about a lot of different things.  But when we were just a couple blocks from my house I couldn't take it anymore.  So I stopped and did something I had never done before.  I asked him to go out with me. I surprised myself when I asked him.  But I was even more surprised when he said "yes."  We walked back to my house holding hands and me with a huge smile.  That was October 12, 1998.

And as happy as I was then, I'm even happier now.  It's been over 2 years that we've been together.  Of course our relationship isn't perfect, but whose is?  We've had our ups and downs, but the important thing is we've gotten through.  We see each other now just about everyday, and we talk online every night.  We're both 17 now.  And I can honestly say I'm in love.  We're planning on going to the same college next year.  We have the same field of major.  And someday we hope to get married and have our own family.  Mark is perfect for me.  I think he's perfect all together though.  He's gorgeous, he's smart, he's athletic (he can play ANY sport), he doesn't drink or do drugs, and he's SO great with kids.  He has a 2 year old niece, a 2 year old nephew, and a 3 month old nephew.  If you could see him with these kids you would just melt.  You have to remember, he's only 17.  These kids love him.  He wants to coach his nephew's baseball team someday.  He always watches them for his brother and sister.  Even today, he came into my work with his 2 year old nephew.  He took him to go ride the train in the mall.  I can't wait till we have our own kids.  SOMEDAY.  Someday years from now though.  I've had so much fun with Mark it's unbelievable.  I wouldn't know what to do without him.  He always makes me feel loved.  He was prom king last year too.  And the best part, my
parents love him!

Again, sorry this took so long.  I just can't type enough, but I tried to limit.  I'm enclosing some pictures of us too.  Thanks for taking interest in my story!

Sincerely,
Stephanie