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I remember the day well – a cold, bleak, rainy December’s day. I’d not long got back from another session with my therapist and I was certain that friends were no longer for me. I had nothing, I told myself, nothing but my family.

“SLOWLY allows you to connect with people from all over the world through sending digital letters” the article read. Oh heck, I thought, what harm can one little look do?

I installed the app and cautiously typed out a short introductory letter. I smashed the Auto-Match button and waited for a reply. Nobody, I was certain, would ever write back to me.

Two years later, and I am on SLOWLY as often as I can be. Some of the people *did* write back, and plenty of others have written to me since. I have shared laughs, I have shared recipes and I have shared tips, tricks and opinions. I have shared happy moments and I have shared sad ones, too. When my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer two years ago, it was my SLOWLY family who helped me through.

Some people are fleeting, and others have stayed for years. In all of this, I’ve learned the value of friendship and the true value of human connection, physical or otherwise. I didn’t come here looking for love, I came here looking to find a friend, and on SLOWLY, I found them in abundance. If I only knew…