How do you date?

I have been in the dating game for some time.
I started young, if you can call that dating.
My first "unofficial" boyfriend was a boy on a bus. Well it was in school, we were 6 years old, rode the bus together every day. He held my hand and blew me a kiss good bye every day.
My father heard about it and put a stop to it.
Sigh, the love of a father.
I stopped sitting with him on the bus.

Jump ahead a few years. I really never dated after that. There were those school yard crushes. You see a cute guy or girl and just hang on their every word, never touching them or officially dating them, but if you are lucky get to dance with them at one of the school dances.

The next unofficial person I could say I dated, I use the word dated loosely. Was a girl, she was one of my best friends. Long red hair, tons of freckles, green eyes. It lasted from age 11-13. We would hang out after school, sneak off to hidden locations and experiment. You wouldn't think that at age 11 you would be doing certain things. Well, you are wrong. We did the basic things. Hugging, kissing, fondling. Then also more. Strange as it is to think about now, then, it was just a "how does this feel?" Once we moved to a different school, we stopped being best friends. With new people to get to know, we went our separate ways. A year later my mother made us move towns. I never saw or talked to her again.

Moving to a new place when you are 14 is not pleasant.  I went from a small farm town to a city. My clothes, lack of makeup and hairstyle were not up to their specifications. I had 1 real friend all through high school. Sad to day, I spent most of my time in the library at school or online at home.

I discovered chat rooms and forums, blogging and fanfiction sites. I was in love! For a teenager, getting any type of attention was AMAZING!
I talked to so many guys I felt like I was a princess. Of course looking back on it, they were all probably older, perverted men who were looking to get dirty pictures or video chats with a under age virgin. It probably didn't help that I went into chats saying "16/f looking to chat!"

People have no restraint when it comes to the internet and chatting with people online. I think part of it is they don't seem real. I do not see you, I cannot hear you, are you just my imagination, or possibly a computer?

I had a separate email for chatting online, I even had an alias "Mika" I could be anyone in the world. I chose to be cute little Mika. Perky, always happy, full of innuendos and always interesting. I would spend hours upon hours in chat rooms, on forums trying to get people to love me. I was very lonely as a teen and drew on the attention and online affection of others.

You have to wonder sometimes, for such a powerful tool as the Internet, it certainly was an amazing friend to me.