Distance...

I think this is something so many of us go through, thanks to the nature of Second Life... 

Long distance relationships...

I've been in SL for almost 4 years now.  I joined after a fairly horrendous split with my RL ex.  I guess I joined SL as a sort of rebound.  I mean, in my eyes, it beat going out and sleeping around in RL.

I never expected to still be part of SL all the time later.  I thought I'd join for a weekend and that'd be it.  Something grabbed onto me, and here I still am.

Over the course of my time in SL, I've obviously met lots of people, and some have been very special to me... they know who they are.

Long distance relationships are a tricky thing, huh?  They really play on every insecurity that a human being can have... all at once.  

I honestly never realised how jealous I am, as a person, until I had a Second Life relationship.  This also probably has something to do with my cheating scumbag RL ex :)

I guess we all carry our RL baggage with us, and that includes taking it into SL.

Until SL, if someone had told me they were in a long distance relationship... I probably would have laughed, and dismissed it.  Now, I have my RL friends doing just that to me.  I'm in a relationship in SL, but we also class that as RL.  I'm off the market in both worlds, and that's something my RL friends don't seem to grasp.  They try to set me up with friends of friends, they tell me guys are looking at me, they suggest I join countless dating apps.  They just don't understand it, because they've never experienced it.

They are exactly where I was... before SL.

Long distance relationships are definitely challenging... but they can also hugely rewarding.

Timezones are a massive fucking pain in the arse!  There, I said it.  Just had to get that off my chest!  They make it difficult to manage schedules, and sometimes it's frustrating when you just can't make that hangout time work with all that RL throws at you.

RL really gets in the way sometimes! :(

Something I love about SL... you really get to know someone so much better in the course of a day, than you would on a first date in RL.  Generally people are fairly open, when you make that connection.  Sure, people only share what they want you to know, but it can be deep.

So, do long distance relationships have to be heading to a meeting in RL?  What do you guys think?  I'd be interested to hear your views on that.

For me, in the past, I would've said no.  However, ask me today, and the answer is a definite YES!  That poses a whole other realm of difficulties... but if you both want it, I believe you can make it work.

I'm not going to embarrass them here, by naming them... but I've seen an example of it working.  A guy who moved from one side of the fucking world to the other, to be with the woman he loves.  That not only makes me melt inside... but gives me hope.

Distance CAN become reality :)