Mid 1990s, I'm in high school and the internet is just starting to catch on. At the time, I am really into learning other languages and my extremely nerdy classmate (die hard Trekkie, the whole bit) tells me that I can use the internet to chat with people from around the world.

Of course, this sounds awesome. He introduces me to IRC (chat rooms for you youngsters) which was just about as plain vanilla as you could get. No images, no emojis, plain text. He gives me the chat program on a disk and tells me he will meet me online after school and show me how to use it.

I ask him how I'll find him. He tells me he'll use the nickname Fido.

So I come home from school, log in and start up IRC. I do a username search for Fido and find one hanging around in a global chat room where people could practice their foreign language skills. My classmate knows I'm into this stuff, so I'm certain that's him.

I have no idea that this isn't my friend, but rather a doctor down in Florida who happened to be studying Arabic (if I remember right). He also manages this particular chat room. He welcomes me in and tells me the basics of how to use it.

Some other people sign in. One of them is a guy in Germany who is practicing his English. He seems to be a regular there and Doctor Fido guy introduces us. German guy practices his English with me several evenings a week. We talk about movies, music, world events and find out we have the same tastes.

This continues on for several years.

A few years later after graduation, we agree to finally meet in person.

We've been married 10+ years now and I love him more every day.

So what happened to my friend? Turns out his hard drive blew up on him and he didn't have my number so had no way to reach me.

TL;DR: Friend promises to show me how to use internet chat. Has hard drive failure. Meet future husband in the process.