Yes, I did buy a giant stuffed lobster. Although an impulsive purchase, it's one I do not regret. I had gotten it on a trip to Massachusetts that I went on this past summer with some high school friends. We had went to visit our online friends in their hometowns for the first time.

Growing up I had always been warned by my parents to "stay away from strangers" online, so I never really had the experience of making online friends. But, long story short, some of my high school friends had their own set of online friends that they met through video games and, as you might have guessed, they eventually became my online friends too.

And so, as my first online friends I've ever made, although we have all met up in person before multiple times, going on this trip and getting to stay at their homes was almost like a turning point in breaking that "online" label of our friendships. On the trip, we got to visit our online friends in their hometowns, meet their family, hang out together in places familiar to them but so foreign to us, and to experience the way they have grown up this whole time. It's a trippy experience to say the least.

But of course you're wondering how a lobster has anything to do with this right? Well, not too far from one of our online friend's house was a boardwalk near a beach that we ended up visiting multiple times. On the last day before me and my highschool friends had to leave, we visited the souvenir shop on this boardwalk (hence the photos of the ceramic ducks), which is where I laid my eyes on an extremely obnoxiously giant stuffed lobster. And, obviously as one does, I bought it immediately.

But what has made use as a good comfy pillow has also served as a wholesome reminder of my online friends and my high school friends and the first trip we went on together :)

Click on the dots to scroll through photos from the trip!