We Can Never Meet In Real Life

by Lianne Viel Villanueva

I was staring at the ceiling when a buzz suddenly disrupted my wandering thoughts. I grabbed my buzzing phone the second it rang. I took a glimpse at the time displayed on the screen— 12:37 AM. It was a late night in 2021, and I had been impatiently waiting for this very call all day.

“Pareesa,” I smiled after reading aloud the name on the screen.

She is an Afghan— a friend whom I met on the internet, the same age as me. She lived across the world and we never met in real life, but it had never been a problem for us.

We had gotten into the liking of spending long hours on nightly video calls since neither of us really liked typing on our little phones. Well, honestly, my head had started getting migraines from staring at the blue light for hours, but I did not want to tell her that— no! At least this way, I could put my phone beside my ear and listen to her stories from across the world without getting a kick on the head.

I thought to myself, “when will I ever cross the borders away from mine?”

I was once again pulled back to reality when a voice shrieked from the phone. It was Pareesa’s voice, asking if I was zoning out again. I laughed it off and asked her how her day went before telling her about mine, and she immediately started chattering my ears off.

Even though I was still a kid, I knew better than to trust strangers online just because they sent me a picture of a girl my age as “proof.” Pareesa and I only knew each other because my mother told me to live life— to spend time with kids my age instead of staying locked in my room all day, she said. So I thought, why not join an online study group?

Pareesa had the best stories. She was one of the most resilient girls I had ever met. She would never miss a chance to mention how studying can change her whole life, hence which she is dedicated to, yet still knowing how to have fun. I aspired to be like her. An optimist; thinking her future hinges on how her exam scores turned out this week.

“Hey Esa,” I asked and she stops speaking. “Do you ever think we’ll get a chance to see each other in real life, beyond the borders?”

I look at my phone. There I see Pareesa who glances behind her as voices echoed faintly from somewhere in her house, presumably from their television. Pareesa’s facial expression shifted; distraught, almost fearful— but quickly forced a smile and looked back at her phone. If I weren’t being attentive enough, I would not have noticed at all.

And there, I got my answer.

No.

A few days later, the news spread across every television channel and every social media page I opened. In August 2021, the Taliban seized control over Afghanistan. After the Afghan government collapsed, thousands of children were stripped of their right to education— especially young girls, many of whom were no longer allowed to attend school or even freely pursue learning.

That was when I finally understood the look on Pareesa’s face that night.

The borders between us were no longer just oceans and distance. They had become walls built from fear, war, and lost freedom.

In April 1917, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson addressed Congress and declared that the ultimate goal was to “make the world itself at last free.” Ironic, isn’t it? More than a century later, millions of children still grow up trapped behind wars they never started, governments they never chose, and freedoms they may never experience.

Some children lose their homes. Some lose their families. And some— like Pareesa-- lose something people often take for granted: the simple right to learn, dream, and hope for a future beyond the borders drawn around them.

We speak of freedom as though it belongs to everyone equally, yet there are girls who

still have to whisper their ambitions in silence, afraid that even education can be taken away from them.

And perhaps the cruelest part of all is this: I could still call Pareesa every night, hear her laugh through my phone, and pretend the world between us was small. But no matter how strong our friendship became, there were some borders that friendship alone could never cross.

SOURCES:

Treaty Between the United States and the Creek Indians Signed at New York. National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/social-media/todays-doc-app.html?dod-date=402

Laub, Z. & Maizland, L. (2022). The U.S. War in Afghanistan. Council on Foreign Affairs.https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/educator-resource/president-wilsons-declaration-war-message-congress-april-2-1917

President Wilson’s Declaration of War Message to Congress. Primary Source of Document. https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/educator-resource/president-wilsons-declaration-war-message-congress-april-2-1917

Bobkin, N.N. (2022). The End of the War in Afghanistan: The Defeat of the United States and the Consequences for Regional Security. Her. Russ. Acad. Sci. 92 (Suppl 4), S331–S339 (2022). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S1019331622100045