This is the story of the day I met the boy of my dreams when volunteering at my aunt’s event called Strike Out Kids Strokes (SOKS). It was an annual fundraising event for Toronto Sick Kids Hospital to fund research into the cause of strokes in children. The event takes place in a mansion. My aunt organises the event because her son had a stroke at the age of four. I met Thomas, the boy of my dreams, at the fundraising event.

Every year, I volunteered with a girl named Emma, but in 2011, I met Thomas. Thomas had dark blue eyes and dirty blond hair. Together, he and I would run around the mansion halls having competitions of who could sell the most tickets all day. Sometimes we would lose our focus and make a pit stop at one of the many tables. One table in particular, one that served delicious chocolate fudge. Sometimes, you could smell the sweet aroma of a fresh, warm batch of pastry filling the air. The more time we spent together allowed us to become better friends. We exchanged both our Kik and Snapchat accounts, Kik is an app used to communicate with people, similar to texting. Sadly, we only stayed in touch for a couple of months, eventually, going our own separate ways.

In February of last year, Thomas and I started texting through Snapchat. I was scrolling through my chat list on Snapchat looking to get in touch with people that I hadn’t heard from in a while, suddenly, I came across his name. I sent him a message saying ‘’hi“, I didn’t expect him to snap me back. I could feel the discomforting vibration moments later indicating that he replied. I opened it right away and instantly recognized him. He hadn’t changed that much, he just “matured” a little. I instantly fell in love with him.

Over the summer, we didn’t communicate. Once school started, we began texting again. I was still too shy to tell him how I felt, but once I confirmed he didn’t have a girlfriend I was overcome with excitement. I felt closer to him as time went by but it started to get harder to keep the secret of how I truly felt about him.

The week before Christmas break, I finally told this adorable dirty-blond haired boy with dreamy eyes how I really felt about him. I texted him that I liked him and he replied that he felt the same way. At first, I wasn’t sure that he understood my intentions so I texted him again. He replied that he didn’t want to be just friends. I was so happy, excited and a little shocked to read those words because I wasn’t expecting him to feel the same way.

One day, he got sick and I just wanted to give him a hug, but couldn’t so I virtually “hugged” him and he “hugged” me back. I was really happy to hear that but at the same time very sad because I knew that we couldn’t. That’s why I’m looking forward for March break when we will be reunited.

Every time he sends me a picture of himself, I look into those blue eyes, I’d get lost and can’t leave. He always made me feel like I’m the only girl in the world and he still does today. The one thing that scared me about this is that I’ve never been in a relationship before and to this day, I’ve been worried that I’ll mess something up. I’ve had a couple of close calls already.

I always asked myself: ‘’how do I deserve this boy?“ And, ‘’how come he wants to be with me of all other girls in this world?“ That’s when I realised that I’m obviously the prettiest girl in the universe.

I’ve loved Thomas from the moment I started talking to him a year ago. I know that he also loved me back because otherwise I wouldn’t be sure why he’d want to be my boyfriend. I look forward to seeing him again when I go up to Toronto for March break where we will once again be reunited.