Meet an online friend from Instagram

Long months ago, I followed an influencer on Instagram. His contents are good, and have given me a lot of inspiration. One day, he reposted a story about his follower. I didn't who he is. In that story, that guy announced that he got an influence from him and wanna start his own journey.

I clicked the video to see the full version. I saw that guy, older than me, I believe he is in early 30's. That guy was into hiking and planning to document all his hiking journey on Instagram.

The first time I saw the video, I didn't impress, I was just like, "Okay cool, good luck!"

But then, I decided to follow him after I saw some other videos. Some of those videos have connected to me, somehow. This guy, has many things in common with me, and also has pretty similar goal.

I decided to click a follow button just to see how far will he go. And perhaps, along the way, he could influence me somehow.

Time passed months by months, I'd never really texted him. Untill one day he posted that he's in Bali. So am I. I was confused, should I text him, but we never really texted before? But I wanted to know him. I wanted to talk to this guy. I believe our conversation would be worthful.

Then, I decided to comment on his story. I wrote, "Oh, so you're in Bali, Mas. Which area? I'm in Bali too, btw."

Much too friendly for someone who had never texted before. I expected something like, "Hell who are you?" or "Sorry, do I know you?"

But you know what, he was really open and replied my chat kindly. He even called my name. Sometimes, when I talk to someone that I don't know well, they barely call my name. But he did. I'm impressed, dude!

I asked for a meet up, he's super welcome and really okay with that.

A week later, that day has come. We met. As expected, he's not awkward at all, and super warm. That's why, it's easier to connect with him. We didn't feel like strangers, but friends.

Normally, whenever I talk to someone new, sometimes it feels awkward because on they side, they don't want to open the door completely at first.

We came to a coffee/library place. I planned to just order a cup of coffee, because I haven't gotten my paycheck yet. And it's in the middle of the month. Broke time!

However, when I asked for his bank account to transfer, he said it's okay, it's on me. He treated me the coffee, I didn't ask but he did. I felt bad at first but yeah, I couldn't helped but say, "Sure thanks!"

We talked for an hour and more. He had an unique way to start a conversation. He had a project, so whenever he meets someone new, he's gonna ask 10 topics of their interest and then he's gonna match it with his own.

I felt like the boss of big company was just interviewing me!

But then yeah, the conversation still going smoothly. And it didn't go just one side, which it's not just he was asking all the questions, and I just answered it. It's just like a normal conversation, sometimes I asked a question, then the other time his turn. The difference was just he wrote the topics on the book for documentation.

As expected, we have pretty much in common. We easily connected because we got influence from the same people, and has the same point of view for some things. I didn't regret it I came there, on the contrary, I would've regretted it if I didn't come.

Thank you, Pal. Hope we can meet again some day!