Road Trip Wednesday #169: Anything For Love

This is my first time participating in Road Trip Wednesdays.  I'm excited, but I'm nervous, too.  Love and the things I've done for it is a really personal subject that has caused me great pain, but I think it'll be nice to write about it!

First thing's first: I met my boyfriend online.  Before you jump to conclusions about online dating, let me explain.  We met through a video game, and my feelings for him developed, well, out of nowhere.  I was caught off guard because I never expected anything of the sort to happen to me, a level-headed, realistic gal.

It's safe to say that I didn't begin to play online video games with the intent of finding love.  If anything, I played them for the sole purpose of personal down time.  It was my escape, and I didn't see it as a social outlet.  I did my own thing, had my own fun, and that was that.

He was the first to communicate with me.  He invited me to his guild (man, does this sound geeky or what) and we hit it off really well.  Like I said, I never made the effort to talk to people online, so this was all new to me.  I thought of it as a penpal type of thing, and it was nice to talk to someone who had so much in common with me - and who had my kind of sense of humor.

Honestly, the rest is history.  We skyped/video chatted so much that by the time I realized I had developed feelings for him, it was too late.  I couldn't deny what was happening.  I was terrified.  I already had a negative view of online relationships because they were just so taboo that I didn't need to be reminded that what I was doing was crazy.  I knew it was crazy.  I still know it's crazy!  (Although I consider myself a seasoned veteran now.)

Love is a commitment, plain and simple.  When I fell in love with my boyfriend, I knew that we would never have it easy.  He lives in America; I live in Canada.  The distance itself isn't even the issue so much as nationality is.  How would we live together when the time came, what with all the citizenship hoopla?  And, moreover, what would our peers think?

I'm the type of person that cares way too much about what other people think.  Not in the "omg I don't look a certain way therefore I am unworthy" sort of way, but in the "I want you to accept me and I don't want you to look down on me" sort of way.  I'm a people-pleaser - I don't want to upset them!  So knowing that people didn't understand or were freaked out by my relationship hurt like hell (it still does).  But after being able to meet my boyfriend in real life and realizing that, despite popular belief, we are compatible and we still love each other just as much, if not more, in person, I had an epiphany: my happiness is important.

I know that if I give up on my relationship because everyone tells me that it's unrealistic or insane, I will regret it.  Forever.  I love this man, and I'm not going to back away from something I adore just because it's may be seen as taboo.  He makes me happy.  That matters!

Stories of people who've found love or friendship online inspire me - they warm my heart.  The world is such a marvelous, vast place.  There are literally billions of people out there, and I think it's great that technology allows us to connect with such ease nowadays.  I mean, obviously...but I'm biased.

Long story short: I'm currently in a very long distance relationship with a boy I met through an online game, completely by chance.  As weird as it may be to some, I found love in a hopeless place

And that's the craziest thing I've ever done for looooooove~