Yes, I'm Still Basking in Sentimentality.

I wanna share a story. Back then when I was primary school kid, the dial-up internet, which was made possible thanks to the 56K modem, was something new and revolutionary. Everybody in the class was super excited by its existence. Their fondness of the technology was made obvious through incessant sessions of online chatting. I was no exception. Friendster and Facebook were unheard of back then, hence besides communicating through e-mails and Yahoo Messenger, there was practically nothing else that we found interesting (well except for some who were thrilled by their online adventures to 'the other side', if you know what I mean). And soon I grew tired of it.

I decided to do something different. I signed up for penpal programmes at various websites, you know, just for the sake of trying. At first I thought it was rather useless and unprofitable. Plus, my English was only as good as the typical Standard 5 Malay boys from Kemaman, if not worse. So I didn't put any hope in getting noticed at all. Well, not long after I submitted my application online, I found out I was wrong. A girl named Bobbijo Harrison from New South Wales, Australia sent me an e-mail, asking whether if we could become penpals. And yes I was very very thrilled.

"Internet is so awesome!"

We exhanged e-mails for quite some time, talking about things ranging from hobbies to cultures and everything else 11-year-olds would talk about. I was so happy. Tapi malang tak berbau. It was raining heavily that particular afternoon and as usual I was surfing the internet when all of a sudden the thunder struck the house, causing a blackout. I thought it was only temporary. Later that day I found out that it had also claimed the life of my modem. And the computer too.

For a month, Bobbijo had not heard anything from me. When we finally got the computer back from the store, I tried contacting her again. But she just disappeared. Maybe thunders struck her house too. But that was it. Her story, I mean. Tak habis lagi la:P Then I started writing to even more people. There was this girl form Arkansas named Katie who shared a lot of stories about horses and alfalfa. Very interesting. I can't remember why we stopped exchanging emails. Owh, maybe I forgot my password and had to make a new email account but I couldn't remember her email because it's stored in my previous account resulting in me not being able to contact her anymore. Phew. That's quite a mouthful. Or maybe I just made that up.

And there was also Joanna Kroliczek, from Poland.

This is her. She was eleven while this picture was taken.

Yes I was intimidated. Look at me when I was her age. Haha.

Yeah this is the last letter that I received from her. I found it last Sunday when I was cleaning up my room. At the end of her letter, she asked me to send her my photo.

Did she get it?
Sadly, no. Because I never bothered to write her back.
Only two letters and that was it.
Teruk sungguh.

The moral of the story?
Jangan online mase tengah hujan lebat.