MANILA, Philippines ? Dear Emily,
I am a 43-year-old happily married woman but I am bored with my life and daily routine. One day, I decided to chat online as a 25-year-old single lady using another name and someone else?s picture.
I met a 25-year-old nice man. We chatted for a week?about four hours a day straight. We began missing each other when we went offline. Mine was purely friendship, but I felt romance on his side. However, I felt empty whenever he would forget to text me.
One day he proposed marriage, but we are not in a BF-GF relationship. He has a new job in his country, which gives us less time on the Internet, only through cell phone. My husband doesn?t know about this.
Do you think I?m being disloyal to my marriage? I wanted to end this cyber relationship but how? I feel empty when he?s not in contact with me. I?m scared he would do something bad to himself.
MALU
You?re bored, you feel empty?pick up a hobby that will keep your body, soul, mind very busy. You?re playing with fire!
Who are you going to blame if you get burned?your comfortable and blessed life? And yes, you are being disloyal to your husband.
Didn?t you say you?re a happily married woman?
If you want to end this cyber relationship, change your e-mail address, change your cell number, do something to make him lose track of you. Don?t just sit there biting your nails.
Why should you be scared that this cyber boyfriend will do something bad to himself?
Did you mean suicide? If you?ve met and had eyeballed each other and went on a long-torrid-devil-may-care affair, that can be possible.
But since your introduction to him was as a 25-year-old woman with a faux photograph to boot, I don?t think so.
He might even get the electric shock of his life if you?d actually meet in person now, what with his visions of an entirely different you that you placed on the Internet.
He has fallen in love with an illusion of you?both mental and verbal!
You did it to someone you said was a nice man. You were on the Internet because you were bored and wanted fun.
He could have been there to meet a soulmate, not a playmate! What you did was disingenuous and cruel. Finish the game already. Give him a break.
E-mail the author at emarcelo@inquirer.com.ph, Subject: Lifestyle, or send your letters to Inquirer. Log on to www.pbs.gov.ph and listen to Ms Marcelo co-host the program ?Kalikasan Vigilante,? 7:15-8:30 p.m., Monday-Friday, on dwBR 104.3 FM.
