Successful Escape - Tyler James Vo

[Ceri Shaw]

I've never seen her face once, but I can feel her across the world, I met her through a video game, but to us, it wasn't a game, it was our escape!

Ever since I was eight I had these strange goals, I just dreamed of doing big things. I wanted to be an entrepreneur. Then I wanted to be an inventor, but I lost interest. One day I wanted to be a pianist and even a scientist, I decided to be an artist but nobody had the same mind as me, I was picked on in middle school for years, just because I was different, I stopped going to school. Eventually, I decided to stop talking for good Everyday I encountered others, I wouldn't say a word, I stopped talking to my teachers, anybody in public. I wouldn't talk to one person,then, I wanted to talk again but I couldn't.Everybody always said that this kid couldn't talk, why don't you speak up? Why don't you stand up for yourself? It was too hard, there was nowhere for me to go, I was different.That all changed when I met this friend in a virtual world.I was in middle school at the age of twelve when I found this virtual world.

Almost one year later, this virtual world became my only hope. It was the only place I could talk. Around 2003 I met a friend in my virtual world. It was strange how we met but that made it unique. In real life , you just meet people. Simple as that , you meet at a store, etc. In this virtual world, you can meet anywhere , in the wild, in a dungeon or even in the middle of nowhere.Not only the place where you meet ,its how you meet that person.There was this one person I met in my virtual world that made me feel so hopeful . She was the only that gave me the courage to speak again Everyday , I would talk to her...she gave me confidence. I could believe so much because of her. I didn't just meet her in a store or at school. I met her in the desert , like it was a blank and emerging destiny.She wasn't the only friend I met like this , I met so many friends the same way. There were many times , when I wanted to cease to exist in reality. She saved my life, she gave me courage and brought me back into the new existence, we walked in this world 24 hours a day.She wasn't just a friend, I always think of her, the image of me on this hilltop at night while the wind blows, stars shining till the last stardom with the rain pouring down, and the lanterns floating in the sky with the creatures hovering around. I would be standing on that hilltop and she'd come running up to me,she would hold me as the lanterns in the sky started to sway. She was the one that gave me the confidence to speak again, then one day, I promised her something... I would be the greatest artist with this confidence that she gave me. I would be a famous artist, one that would show through his works...how much he loved her. I would change the world for her, bring out the obvious problems of this world through my art and concepts. I would do it for her.I will not give up. She changed me so much.

Together, we flew in the sky , over the ocean , in a dream that lasted forever! With unbroken bonds of the new existence. I DECLARE THESE BONDS UNBROKEN. I will fly with her forever in a dream that turns to the new reality.I burned fires of infinitism down the longest path that existed for eternity shedding tears...with her in the most magical and legendary lake of all time.She is the light that shines in the distant...you are the one in the darkness...looking for that light! That light. Is the only thing there to trust, you leave it to chance. One day you find it but it disappears. You can only have faith. That the light is still there. I found that light and I constantly lose it but I learn to trust it even more.

Then one day, she died from cancer...A true friend is not a friend that you can see and know that they are there without a doubt. A true friend is a friend you truly have faith in without a doubt. True friendship is when you don't see that friend but you know that they are there and you learn to trust and believe in them.that one day you will see them without a doubt! "I want everyone to feel this way,I WILL make everyone feel this way in their souls forever. This virtual world gave me that chance..to know what true friendship really is! Shes wasn't just a lover to me, shes was everything in my whole hearted soul!

However, a few years later, when I got halfway towards this goal. I found out, she was alive! She had to leave, but she just didn't want me to know. We met in real life and the first thing I did was hold her in my arms....and here we are today;) We immeditly dressed up in fake armour and went outside running around like in our virtual world. We didn't care if everything was real, to us, it was an escape.

Tyler James Vo