Andromeda.

Nearly 5.2 billion people use the internet daily, whether for work, school, communication, or entertainment. 

We were isolated; quarantined. The social strain was… immeasurable.

As if by magic, the internet allows information to be transmitted nearly instantaneously between almost any two locations on the planet earth. 

Hours upon hours were spent staring at a screen, hoping for some semblance of human interaction.

It is the fastest, most widely-used form of communication in existence. 

Unfortunately, for most people, the connections were about as brief and unstable as public wifi. (I often wonder what became of the people I met for a day. I have poured hours into trying to find them again, but to no avail.)

Nearly two million kilometers of cables run underneath the ocean to connect the continents, while several million more kilometers span across the land.

And yet it continued to be enthralling. We kept meeting new people, people we never would have met if we had stayed within our local areas. Although everyone had their guard up for phishing and worse, occasionally real, lasting connections could be made.

The moon landing used 74 kilobytes of data, compared to the staggering two and a half billion gigabytes transferred over the internet daily. 

Out of all the people I came across, only one I still regularly talk to. Although we had never met until a year ago, and are separated by nearly 2 thousand miles, we talk as though we had been lifelong friends. Like we had grown up together.

On clear nights, another galaxy can be seen without a telescope, in the constellation of Andromeda. 

Somehow, it’s both a blessing and a curse. I never would have met them otherwise, but I’ll always have to wonder…

This neighboring spiral is two million, two hundred thousand light years distance. 

What would have happened if… if we had met, in real life, years ago. How much closer could we have been? It is comforting to know that as I look up at the stars and the moon at night, so can they. They are the same stars and the same moon.

It radiates over one billion six hundred thousand times as much light as the sun.

I cannot understand how I can miss someone I’ve never really met, but I am glad we’re at least a little bit closer than… than

Andromeda.

Partially sourced from Globular by The Brobecks