How the election Twitter's debates found me my leprechaun lover

Twitter is many things (No Elon I'm not calling it X). The loudest social media site, the "online town square", a burning cesspit of interconnected echo chambers. It's one of those things I take part in reluctantly–mainly lurking just to see what people are talking about–and the last place I would ever think to get into a whirlwind online romance.   

Y'all probably remember the 2020 US presidential election. It was an evening in late November when I chose to get into a classic Twitter debate with a Trumpet. We fought back and forth, but not long into our convo, someone else replied to both of us. A special someone from Ireland. Let's just call him Prince Paddy (because St Paddy, because Ireland, you get the idea). Like any normal human, Prince Paddy took my side and between us we kind of good cop bad copped the Trumpet.  

I innocently DM’d Prince Paddy behind the scenes and we spent a great hour making fun of the Trumpet behind his back. I don't think I’ve giggled so hard at an online conversation before or since. We both found it hilarious that two terminally online people from New Zealand and Ireland could bond over an election taking place thousands of miles away. I didn't really think of it beyond 'that was an enjoyable conversation with an internet stranger.' 

But a few days later, Prince Paddy messaged me again and told me about his life. He had just gone back into lockdown and since he lived alone it was wearing on him a lot. Before long we were talking every few days, then every day, then all day every day. A constant stream of photos, debates, and gossip.  

We only stopped messaging to sleep.  

It's funny how that little tingling feeling creeps up on you. As the months dragged on, I noticed how my face would heat up while we messaged. I was sitting in the library messaging him one day when all the feelings I'd been ignoring hit me like a truck. Prince Paddy wasn't just my friend anymore, and I think he knew it too. I worked up the courage to say something, that horrifying and inevitable question – "What are we?"  

We agreed we were not in a relationship. In hindsight, that was definitely a lie. 

The next few months were probably the closest I have ever felt to another person. Which is weird, right? He's on the other side of the world, with his own life that I am not a part of. But it often felt like he was right next to me. An imaginary best friend – except he was real.  

We only Facetimed ONCE. Living at home, I had so little privacy we were never able to say the things we really wanted to say on call. So, we avoided it. We would often talk about me going over to Ireland or him coming here–the places we’d go, the things we’d do–like they were going to happen. We never used the big L word – that comes with commitments and expectations we knew we could never give each other. But I felt it, and I knew he did too.  

In the years since we have drifted apart and back together many times. To this day, I still haven't met him in real life.  

Love is one of those funny things, it can come from the most unlikely of places, even some random Twitter argument. So, shoutout to Twitter, as flawed a place as it is, and to that Trumpet for bringing together the two most random strangers on the internet.   

To Prince Paddy, thanks for everything.