Long Distance Relationships

by Christina
(Oakley, CA, USA)

I lived 2,000 miles from the man I loved. It was difficult to build a meaningful relationship without daily interaction, but we persisted. My motivation was to find ways to interact remotely, and to connect with each other every day, so that our love would blossom.

We explored instant messaging, online multi-player games, virtual worlds, e-mail, and even video conversations. Spending an hour each night playing collaboratively through a game, or building a home in a virtual world together, gave us a safe space to explore each other’s interests and habits.

A lot of trust is built up when people are there for each other every day, and we logged over 2,000 days (six years) until we could share the same home. Now that we are together, we expand on that trust in normal, everyday interactions. But, what we learned from our time online prepared us for merging our lives.

We learned we could rely upon each other, and that what we shared of ourselves was true. Many people think it is misguided to carry on a relationship long-distance, but I hope that others will learn from my experience that it is simply a different stage toward a normal relationship.