While re-reading my previous post, I keep coming back to the, “You should have seen my face!” exclamation and subsequent wordy explanation of how I did see my own face—thanks to video chatting.

Lately, I have been thinking how thankful I am for video chats. Guessing I am not the only one with an increased participation in video calls, I got a little curious about the history of them.

A recent Time magazine article shared some insight into the history of video calling and how this technology took much longer than anticipated to actually take off.

Personally, my first video call came about while my now husband and I were dating—around 2011, so I was probably a little late to the webcam and Skype party myself. Being able to “see” each other while he was deployed was amazing, and I treasure that we had the opportunity to do so. A little while later, when we were set to be married, I received my most comical piece of marriage advice at my bridal shower— “Skype naked!” I won’t comment any further on this particular advice, other than to say, I was possibly part of the first generation of brides to receive such advice.

I’m not young enough to have grown up with video calling as any kind of norm, so even after the technology was readily available, I can’t say it was my natural inclination to use it. For the longest time, I valued it only as a tool for staying connected with my husband whenever he was away and rarely for anything else. There was the occasional video call with my best friend in Japan. Other than that, once my husband and I started our many relocations due to PCSing, we made it a habit to video chat with family on holidays.

Whether it be from living overseas myself or the “new normal” of COVID-19, I now happily chat with friends from my childhood, high school, and college years, while seeing their smiling faces. One friend and I have even set ourselves up with weekly calls (sometimes video, sometimes not) and have been able to check-in with each other more in these last few months than we have in years.

Having such easy access to hanging out across the miles has been such a blessing in the middle of this wacky year. I wish I had been video chatting with friends all along through each and every move, and I do hope we can all keep it up.

I hope you are checking-in and reconnecting with your friends and family, too! We can all use the support right now.