I used to make some pretty good friends RPing. It wasn't every day, but there were a few people I stayed in contact with for years, wrote dozens of stories with, let into my real life...

Unfortunately one of them died unexpectedly in 2016, which is part of the reason why I quit RPing. I had been on hiatus more often than not up until that point, but we still texted every few weeks. I was completely blindsided by the text from his mom that he was dead, and it still fucks with my head and makes it tough for me to emotionally connect with people online. I'm getting better about it, but I haven't made any close friends since and a part of me isn't sure if I'm capable of it.

Reach out to your peeps, y'all. You never have as much time as you should.