I am in love with a guy I met online?

[Gráinne Ó Riain]

Please read this whole thing, I'm going to try and make it short but every detail is important.

I met this guy 100% ACCIDENTLY online. He actually asked a question about grad school on here almost a year ago, I answered and said he could email me with any other questions. We emailed for a couple days, then got each other's skype. We talked on skype messaging for 9 hours, and he was absolutely wonderful. Soon after, we started calling eachother on voice chat. Then we began to video chat. We can video chat for 7 hours at a time, and we do like every other day. We try to call eachother atleast once a day, and we're texting non stop. I feel so close to him, we have so much in common. First off, I know he's legit. I've seen him face to face more times than I can count, have his personal facebook/twitter, have seen pictures with family/friends, etc. He is so nice to me, he doesn't go an hour without telling me I'm beautiful. We're exclusive, neither of us have dated anyone else. It's not like we couldn't, though. Like I know when people think online relationships, they think losers who can't get anyone else. Both of us (not trying to sound cocky) get asked out pretty often, and we both say no. I literally just got asked out last night by some great guy, but I have him. Thing is, he lives 3000 miles away. We both think of this situation realistically. We know what we need to do to achieve being together, and we're taking it slow and waiting until the right time to tell our parents. Once our parents find out, we'll have them meet us and eachother. We'll go from there. I've never been in love. I've dated plenty of guys, I dated one guy for nearly 2 years before. Never have I ever felt this way, ever. I'd do anything for him. I have no idea how to approach this though. My friends will make so much fun of me, same with my mom and siblings. What do I do? Has anyone dealt with this before?

This isn't just teenage hormones, I think this is the real deal. Although I know that doesn't happen often at our ages (We're 16), I think it is. So please give me answers that aren't saying how it's just lust. I've never felt this way, I didn't know I possibly could. He makes me want to be a better person, he's changed my outlook on life. My grades are better, I stopped smoking, and I actually have aspirations.

Also, both of us are pretty mature. I know all teenagers say this, but we both had to grow up fast. We both grew up in abusive alcoholic families, and had to grow fast to protect our younger siblings. That's something we've definitely bonded over, and due to that neither of us wastes time on silly immature things. We also both had trust and relationship issues due to this, but we've broken them with eachother and created the most incredible bond.
I've skyped him face to face more times than I can count.
I'm from the states, he's from Europe. Which is a dilemma. I have relatives that I know in his country though, actually only about an hour away, and he has family a few states away from me. Eventually one of us will visit, that's all we got planned for now. Or else I'll go there after graduation.
Missan- How did you deal with telling your family/friends? How did they react? Thanks so much for your answer, it means a lot.

[Romi paz]

how have you seen him face to face?
have you actually skyped with him...
be careful..

[Hayley]

Awww. Yous would make a good couple. Your lucky to have someone that does that.

[Missan]

I will answer this from personal experience. I'm 22 almost 23 soon and I meet my now is husband online. We were 5000 miles apart. At that time I was 15 he was 18. We meet also by 100% accident. But we fell in love and started to talk to each other whenever we could, saw each other on photos, web-camera and even phone sometimes.
Now almost 8 years later we are husband and wife since the beginning of this year. We could not meet each other in real life before I was 20 because of economic reasons so that is one thing to consider.
I have to be separated from my husband a short time now though because my country says he has to ask for a resident permit outside the country. But that is maximal 3 months.

So find the real deal can happen on online and when you are young but you need to consider a few things.
1. The waiting.... Oh god the waiting to see each other....
2. If you are from different countries then it is permit and other shit involve (my case) But by your writing I would guess you are both from the states?

So conclusion you need to have lots of patience with this relationship and Lots LOTS of trust.
But if everything works out it will bloom beautifully ^^

Good luck to you two!