While Gabrielle and I were together but apart, we did a lot of our communication through email. Sure, we spoke on the phone most days for at least 5-10 minutes, but our schedules often dictated that our best conversations were written and through Yahoo. Rare was the day that we didn’t email one another.

These days I work a lot with college-aged students. To them, email has become obsolete. They seldom respond to it. The best way to reach them is through text or a peer-to-peer social media platform, such as Snapchat. In some ways, email is going the way of traditional letter writing.

While away for work recently, I emailed Gabrielle for the first time in what seemed like years. I was lying in bed, half asleep, and punched out 100 or so words on my iPhone. I missed her a lot and let her know. It felt good to email her. I know how much she appreciates hearing from me.

Our email interactions started soon after we met and started dating 12 years ago. Savvy as she is, she tracked down my email address without me knowing. I was surprised – not to mention very happy – to see an email from her the night of our first date. That was the start of thousands of meaningful email interactions.

We wrote each other when we were happy, sad, mad, excited, afraid, and everything in between. We’ve saved many of those emails. A few years ago for her birthday, I put together a large book of emails I had written to her over the years. She recently told that her favorite gift ever from me.

Creating that book was quite emotional for me – and it’s uncommon for me to be emotional. Looking back, those emails chronicled forks in the road, changes in our life, twists and turns in our relationship, as well as our maturation. You can track the course of relationship through those emails.

We endured a lot of tough times – especially in the beginning and even more so when I moved away. But we were always there for each other with encouraging words. We helped each other through challenges. We remained loyal. Those words on a computer screen bonded us tightly together.

What I see most in those emails is how much Gabrielle meant to me. How much I missed her. How badly I wanted her in my life.

How lucky I am to have her now.