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Opinion
Long-Distance Love During Covid-19 Doesn’t Work
This pandemic forced me to finally prioritize myself
When the Covid-19 crisis started, I knew my long-distance relationship would be impacted. It meant a canceled trip and reaching the one-year mark since we’d last seen each other. I found myself most concerned about my partner’s reaction to the unexpected circumstance. I knew I would be fine. Being alone is my preferred state.
Long-distance relationships have always appealed to me. My first one was in university with a friend who had always wanted to be more than friends. I figured agreeing to the relationship would make little difference. At worst, we’d keep talking online; at best, we’d have a cool love story. I enjoyed the distance and freedom to choose if and when I engaged. That is probably what I latched onto when I committed to a long-distance relationship in 2017 with a woman in Guyana while living in the Bahamas.
The relationship felt good. We spent many hours in honest, unfiltered conversation before it started. We wanted to develop clear understandings of each other, and we did, but we didn’t think about what our differences would mean in the long run or, more specifically, in the midst of a crisis.
