Day 109- Keep Yo Self Safe

Howdy!

        Memory #109

             I'm currently watching this show on Investigation Discovery called Web of Lies with my bru bru and the episode is basically about this girl who is Instant Messaging on aim (lol does that even exist even more?) and shoot I shouldn't say anything bad about this girl especially since I believe she experiences a tragic death...at the hands of the random strangers she talked to online and spoiler alert...she gives these 'boys' way too much information about her location...like her address. As a twenty something year old who watches way too many Criminal Minds/Law & Order SVU episodes and is super paranoid I find this incredibly hard to believe that a girl would do that. Then I realize. I was that girl. I mean I wasn't but I definitely got close to it. I remember when I was in 5th grade and my friends and I were addicted to this chat forum website. Like obsessed. I don't even want to talk about how much time I spent on that website because it's kind of embarrassing. Anyways at one point my friend and I got to talking to this girl who lived in another country and we decided that we knew each other well enough to be pen pals. How exciting? A 17 year old from I think Germany wanted to be MY pen pal. It was like a dream come true. 

          Until I told my mother. As soon as I told my mom the face she gave to me was not even close to being one of approval. Obviously it was the worst thing ever that could have happened and I stormed off to my room vowing to not talk to my mother as I told my super cool online friend and real friend that I couldn't participate in the pen pal fiesta. Later that night my mom slipped a paper clipped packet under my door. On top was a note from my mom, that I wish I had kept, and the rest was a story. Basically in the top note she told me how the internet isn't always what it seems. The story that she attached was about a girl who gave out her address and the person that the girl thought was a boy her age ended up being an old man that found her and killed her. Basically my mom gave me a love slap of reality. The rest of the note basically expressed how much she loved me and how she could never risk my safety. Which is funny (sort of) to me now. I guess that's why we need moms (and dads) to make us see the obvious until we can see it for ourselves. I might be super paranoid but hey better safe than sorry right?

Love always,

Erin

P.S.

I am also aware that I'm becoming my mother. And I'm totally ok with that.