For those who met online, Question!

[Silviar]

My relationship started online, and even though I fell hard for him, I continued to spend time with him and see how things progressed. When I saw it wasn't just initial crushing, I told him I was attracted to him, and he said the same for me, and we kept progressing our relationship. I don't think it's any different from expressing your interest in real life to someone - it's just that the medium is different.

[DarkSolitary]

Met online 08. I confessed that I was in love with him April 09. We didnt have to give eachother a pep talk. we were just two teens in love and we wanted to be committed to each other. we've been making it work for two years now <3

[jennyjellybeans]

For my relationship, it came at a time when I needed it most. I had gotten out of a bad relationship (my first relationship ever too) and my best friend had moved all the way to Texas. It was devestating to have those two major things come down on me at once. Then, just about the time I was 'picking myself back up' from all that, I met him and he almost instantly made me see how much he liked me after a month or two of constant talking every day. He'd ALWAYS ask me questions about things I liked and did, etc. He also started buying video games just to be able to play with me online. Anyway, it gradually just grew into a relationship, we never really asked to be in a relationship until I brought up changing our Facebook status. Before that, we were pretty much in a relationship without even saying so! Which although odd, I found rather cute because we treated each other like we were already a married couple. lol. I did feel the whole 'what if i fall harder for him than he does for me' at the beginning but from his character and the way he so boldly approached me, he made it clear to me the feeling was and is still mutual.

As for securing your heart, thats a rather 'failsafe' attitude and can protect you from the bad your afraid might happen. But just keep in mind the good things that can happen! Things may or may not go the way you like, you never really know in a relationship. But if you have a geninue partner who's willing to go the distance for and with you, you give them all of your heart and trust them not to break it. It doesn't always work for some, but just be careful, take it slow, and show him you love him and appreciate him. I've also noticed that talking about the future with your partner determines how serious they are in a relationship. Sometimes its not the best thing to mention but my SO and I have talked about it and he is open and hopeful for a future with me. So, consider maybe that, it depends really on your LDR partner.

[Hollis]

I didn't. Not that I can remember, at least. Our relationship doesn't quite have a starting point. It kind of just happened and I can't tell you when the line was crossed. I didn't just meet my SO and a month later decide I'm in love or even a year later. I met my SO when we were both 15 years old through an odd passion for something we both share in life. That's when we decided to be friends and started sending letters/packages back and forth. First we started with emails daily and then we then talked every single day on messenger for hours and hours. Sometime after that we had our first phone call (and I was too nervous to say anything).
Fast forward to age 18, we're both in college and still talking daily. We're 'married' on Facebook. We have phone calls that are incredibly long (and expensive).
Age 19, he attempts to meet me in the summer but it doesn't work out because I'm studying abroad in Russia that summer. It sucks but we get over it. Texting each other is our lifeline and we still have days of IMing for hours. We're closer than ever and definitely have feelings for each other although neither of us knows when those began. At some point we realized we loved each other. No one says 'relationship'. It just kind of...is.
Right after I turn 20 (this past June) a plan is set in stone for meeting each other in person with mutual friends. We're both traveling to meet for 3 days in 19 days.

[Zapookie]

I met my partner while I was in another online LDR in november 2009. We were just friends for a while because of this. That LDR ended terribly in march '10. Around the same time, my partner started dating someone. Like Neme, I promised that I would never ever get into an LDR again. In fact, I wanted to sever my ties with all my online friends because I felt like I couldn't trust anyone at all. My SO included.

I tried to push my him away.. we were just friends at the time, but he often said he would talk to me that night, and never came online. He'd then tell me the next day that he was with the girl he was seeing. I was so upset, not because I had feelings for him, I just wanted a shoulder to cry on, and he wasn't there. He liked me, but he didn't act on it because he knew about my ex and wanted to give me time to heal.

So time passed and he stopped seeing that girl. We started talking more and skyping every day. I did heal, and he helped a lot. And truthfully, I did grow feelings for him during this time, but I tried to suppress it because I was scared. I tried seeing other people in my area to forget about it and distract myself but nothing worked out, and he would get ridiculously jealous when I'd tell him. We decided in january '11 that we'd try and make this work. So yeah we haven't met face to face yet, but he is waiting on his passport to be sent to him and then we're booking tickets (should be in the next few weeks!). I honestly can't believe its actually happening. lol.

[Sunbeam]

Well, when I first started falling for my S.O., I was trying to come to terms with my past failed relationship, which was LD, but not at the distance I'm at now (I went from 150 miles apart to over 3500 miles apart), and he was battling severe low self esteem and depression. Our conversations normally went something like us complaining about how we would never find anyone.

Then one day he told me, "You know, I'd date you if you lived in South Wales." to which I replied I'd date him if he lived in West Virginia. It was out... we knew we were attracted to each other, but the distance screwed us over. So, he pursued girls and I went on casual dates. But neither one of us were happy, we'd talk about how everyone would be jealous of who we were with, but we weren't happy.

Finally, I told him, he was all I wanted. He reciprocated, and the LDR began.

Really, don't let fear keep you from trying. The "what ifs" if Mark and I hadn't overcome the fear of such a huge LDR would have haunted me forever.