My childhood pen pal and I grew up on different continents. After 30 years of friendship, we finally met in person.

I finally met my pen pal in person after 30 years of friendship. Dontaira Terrell This year, I traveled to Ghana and met my childhood pen pal after 30 years of friendship. We initially started writing to each other in second grade as a class assignment. I was nervous our in-person conversation would fall flat, but we picked up right where we left off. When I was 8 years old, my second-grade class participated in a pen pal assignment that matched me with a girl named Naa Ashirifia from Ghana. At the time, there was no social media for a rapid response, no texts to drop a quick note, and no simple phone call that could last for hours. And although the back-and-forth correspondence wasn't immediate, the connection was instant.