what are the odds that i will miss your smile?

Far away isn't as far away as it used to be. You can call people mail and e-mail them, and send them pictures, and web-cam. You can buy a plane ticket and be halfway around the planet in twelve hours. Some of this stuff you can even do for free. It makes going places easier. I have a friend who lives in Paris. I have another friend who will live in Romania all of next year. And once college starts in the fall, I'll have friends all over the country.

The world is more accesable. And people all over the world are more accessable than ever. But it's still not the same. Time zones have to be accounted for. If it's nine at night here, it's three in the morning in Paris, and if I want to talk to Lindsay that's just tough. Melanie won't be online any of the same times I will be; my mid-day will be her late-night. I won't be able to pick up the phone whenever I want to talk to Stacy or Emily or Carolyn unless I want to pay out of my butt. I can't swing by and drop in on Hannah Dale or Megan. You would think that a webcam is as good as the real thing. You can see a friend, you can hear them, you can laugh with them. It's lke sitting across the table from them at Jitters, right?

They've come up with a ton of great stuff, and I'm thrilled with it. But I don't think anyone will be able to take the miles away, or erase the ocean. The world is getting bigger, and bits of my life are starting to fill it in a little more. My tight little life isn't so dense anymore. Things are spreading out, expanding. I am spreading out, expanding. As good as that is, you still lose some stuff in the process. And if you don't work to keep everything close, it will fall off the edge of the map.

So I'm just going to have to work. We're going to have to work. Deal?