(Lakshmi)
The first few months of chatting was a bit awkward, but slowly we got to know each other and became good friends. Filip was sent me many programming links and motivated me to learn new technologies. I felt like we had a common interest and were both focused on our future goals. Initially, I was not telling anyone about our online friendship. At the time, I was simply interested in who he was as a person and what he was doing as a programmer. I was not able to attach to him or anything because there was a great distance between us. So, it suited me at that time. I wanted to finish college and find a well-paid job to help my parents and then go abroad in the future. Because usually, the better company I would get, the better opportunities. From companies, they were sending people abroad with a bigger salary. I had no idea at the time that Filip would come and visit me in India. We were very supportive & understanding towards each other. I liked it and felt good about it because I was an introvert when it comes to boys. I was not very interested in having anyone at that time, but chatting with Filip was worth it. ☺️ He was an interesting person to me. Filip is a self-taught programmer that learned everything by himself, and I wanted to be as good as him.

(Filip)
We were chatting with one another for about three years. The first year was kind of boring, nothing too excited, nothing deep or personal. I liked that Lakshmi was a starting programmer, so we understood each other in IT stuff. Lakshmi used to text me “Good morning” or “Good night” every day. I did not understand why. Sometimes we chatted more, sometimes less because I still thought it is a fake account. Who would trust somebody from India adding me to friends on social media? Hard to believe, right?

After a year, I started asking myself – is she really fake? I was looking at her family/friends photos which she was uploading from time to time. And the style of texting also did not look fake. I decided to risk it. We started asking some questions about our private lives, and that was when our conversation became more personal. When I realised, she was not fake, I started being interested in her. I was curious about who she was, about her religion, her hobbies, about how it works in India, about her life, her family. Yeah, so many questions at once. We also started sharing our view of life, our goals, values, problems. Back then, I was after a few disappointments with dating girls. Long story short, I was only trying to get better at other things besides my work and entrepreneurship. But honestly, it never worked out. I never met a girl who would understand me. So, after a while, I did not want to have anything in common with girls. I felt terrible (who would not), but that is life. Right? Anyhow, at the time, from my point of view – I have never thought I would ever meet Lakshmi in person. She supported me & understood my every problem, and back then, I really needed that. We support and help each other online. It suited me that way because I usually get emotionally attached when I meet girls. But I could not bond with Lakshmi because she was in India. 🙃 So she was my only support during hard and good times throughout my life. I did not think about any other girls or something that would distract me on my path to a more financially free life. I have to admit, Lakshmi 💙 helps me a lot.

After the second year has passed, that is when we truly got to know each other. We started calling and training in English. Our first call (only microphone, no camera) was great and quite surprising. I cannot say I was not nervous. Yeah, I was extremely, but it was not terrible, embarrassing or anything like that. After a few minutes of getting used to English (Lakshmi was much better at English than me because she already had to practise speaking), we started talking about everything. We seemed compatible and always talked more and more about topics, life, hobbies, problems.

My financial life was just getting started. At the begging of 2019, I broke down – financially and emotionally. All my projects failed. After school, I was thinking about getting a job in another town. I started freelance work of programming for companies or people. It slowly started going big after half-year. (Believe me, that half-year was the most stressful year in my entire life – it was tough times). I managed to make a decent amount of money from coding during 2019. And then it hit me. One idea. Uncomfortable but good idea. While thinking about Lakshmi – life gave me an opportunity – a few months before, it was impossible to think about such an idea. But now, it was a reality. I knew I could do it:

I will go to India to meet Lakshmi 💙