Friday, June 30th, marked eight years since I created a Twitter account.

Twitter wasn’t popular in Croatia, and it still isn’t, but I liked it straight away.

It was created for the same reason many of us Arsenal fans check it during summer – transfer rumours and team news for the upcoming season. But, this 5-minute task ended up changing my life in so many ways.

Lame, you might say, I know, but it is what it is.

Not long after I created the account and became active, I followed LadyArse, now Daily Cannon, and met Lee, who is now one of my dearest friends, and who’s responsible for everything I have today online in Arsenal world, from new friends to a place to write stuff like this down and share it with the world.

I guess this is supposed to be my love letter to Arsenal Twitter, a place that is so often mocked and made fun of. Truth be told, we deserve it sometimes, with all the crazy things some people tweet, but for someone living miles away from London, in a town where there are maybe 10 other Arsenal fans but I know only 1 or 2, Arsenal Twitter is like my favourite pub.

Throughout those 8 years of using Twitter, I have met hundreds of people who have become my friends and with whom I chat every week. It’s not only about Arsenal either, and it’s not only on Twitter but beyond.

I can talk to Lee about everything, from books to mental health. I talk with my friend Caleb all the way from America about his family life and how to say something in Croatian. I ask my friend Nick from London about kittens and what are the betting odds on any event anywhere. I answer people’s questions about my lovely country and where to spend their holidays.

Thanks to Twitter, we got to spend an away day with Arsenal fans from London in Zagreb where we had such a great time as if we’d all known each other for 10 years – yet we met for the first time ever on that day.

And this year, Twitter helped us get to London to watch a live Premier League match for the first time ever. We got tickets on Twitter, we met up with friends from Twitter, and we had the best day of our lives so far thanks to all the amazing people from Twitter that made us feel like at home in a strange city that is double the size of our whole country.

Besides the wonderful people I got to meet and who make my life more interesting and helped me learn so many new things, Twitter also did a lot for me on a more professional level. Actual Arsenal players noticed my work and even use it on their social media. The stuff I do here at Daily Cannon helped me get a job interview at Dinamo Zagreb. It even helped me get the full time job I have and love today.

Just like it sometimes hurts when I see people deciding to skip going to the match just because they can and I’m here having to save up for half a year to see one match, it sometimes bothers me when someone mocks this “infamous” Arsenal Twitter. It means so much to me, and I’m sure to many other Arsenal fans like me who don’t get to hang out in Arsenal pubs with other Gooners every now and then.

It’s really great that I can just grab my phone, open up the app and talk with fellow fans about anything, from ‘will Alexis sign that f**king contract’ to ‘which tv show to watch next’.

Yes, a lot of conversations p*ss me off and make me want to delete the app all together, but I still go back every day and join in the madness.

I’ll be forever grateful that I decided to make a Twitter account that summer day in 2009, and yes, I know how lame that is but I don’t care.