"After high school, I attended a community college for a few years. I'm rather introverted and am not good at making new friends, so for most of my first term I basically didn't interact with anyone.
I had a two-hour break between two of my classes, so I started hanging out in the cafeteria because it had chairs and food. One day I saw a guy rocking a blue fedora (this was before the fedora-wearing neckbeard stereotype really became a thing, and also this particular guy is not and never has been a neckbeard in any way) and I complimented him on it. We chatted a little bit and he invited me to join him and his friends who also spent their free time hanging out in the cafeteria.
Fedora Guy and I dated for a little while, but ultimately we weren't a good fit long-term, though we have remained good friends. The big thing, though, was that he introduced me to an internet discussion forum he was part of. I joined that forum and became a very active member in that community, and made a lot of friends through there.
Several years later, I was feeling pretty trapped in where I was in life, working a retail job and barely making ends meet, with no resources to go back to school and no marketable skills to look for other work. A couple from the forums (who lived a good 600 miles from me) offered to let me move in with them and they'd support me while I essentially tried to restart my life. I took them up on their offer, moved from Oregon to California, met a guy I really hit it off with, and am now married and working a job that gives me a great deal of satisfaction.
All because I said "Dude, I like your hat" to a stranger in the cafeteria 15 years ago".
( Lachwen).
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