Now that Tyrel knew that he could at least trust Joana’s words, there was still the looming question of the girls’ intentions. It wasn’t clear to Tyrel why the young woman waited more than a decade to thank him for a gift. Her motives were still unclear, and only time would tell.
Joanna explained that she was very moved by his gesture all those years ago, and wanted to get to know who guy who had sent her that gift back then. Tyrel was quite pleased with her honesty and continued replying to her messages, even after they had said everything they had to say about that old shoebox.
Not Very Convincing
The answer didn't come right away, though. Tyrel began interrogating the girl, but unfortunately, it seemed that Joana didn’t have all the answers. Honestly, she did not remember almost anything about the shoebox’s contents, which put her entire motives in a big question mark. The teenager wasn’t going to let himself get scammed.
Just when Tyrel was about to give up and move on with his life, Joana recalled one specific item from the box which changed everything. It was a photograph. Little did Joana know that the photograph actually belonged to Tyrel when he was almost 10 years old. He asked her to describe it.
Young Tyrel
Joana’s description of what she remembered about the photograph in the shoebox made Tyrel both blush and smile. She told him that the photo contained a young and cute smiling cowboy, standing in front of a wooden background. This was the exact picture Tyrel put in the box many years before.
When Tyrel was still a young child, he never actually expected that his shoebox would really reach the other side of the world. All he knew was that the organization had asked him and his friends to pack a few shoeboxes full of stuff. He never gave it any real thought beyond that.
Much in Common
Tyrel and Joanna continued chatting online on a semi-regular basis and eventually found themselves talking almost daily. To their great surprise, the two had a lot more in common than they initially thought. For example, despite being born and raised on opposite sides of the world, they both loved Christian music.
Eventually, they became good friends and would talk daily about their lives, dreams, and challenges. The relationship lasted for almost two years, which completely flew by for them. By now, the teenager was already a high-school graduate. He saw that this was the perfect opportunity to take their relationship one step further.
Making Travel Plans
Even when Tyrel and Joana were still just at the beginning of their Facebook relationship, it was already clear to the teenager that he was going to meet her one day. This motivated him to work harder, and save up his money, something he was not used to doing before.
Now that he was free from his school duties, Tyrel messaged Joana and asked his new friend if he could travel abroad to meet her in person. The Filipina girl was extremely excited and told him to come as soon as he wished. Just days later, he had already bought the tickets.