Meg and I met a year ago, give or take. Let’s be honest, we met on Tinder. I was stuck in one of the more isolated cities on this continent as not one, but two, blizzards passed. I swiped right on this one photo with the caption – “Gluten tolerant, seek same.” Catchy!
In the months, and now year since, we have had a lot of laughs together. We have loved each other with every ounce we can muster. We cherish the limited time we get together living 992 kilometers apart. We’ve endured some of life’s greatest heartache, e.g. the loss of her father. We’ve celebrated the life’s joy, e.g. various marriages and babies of her friends and family. We’ve risen and fallen and risen again.
She’s a beautiful person – inside and out. Those of you who know her know what I’m talking about and have only served as testimonials that have hardened my commitment.
We laugh a lot together. My main purpose in life in to make her laugh. We are silly together, yet we respect each other. We support each other and seek to build each other up everyday. When on of us down, the other makes it their mission to make the day an inch better. That is the good stuff in relationships.
We both returned to Tinder a year a few days ago later trying to find the origin of what has become “our show.” Those initial chats. Those initial messages are now locked behind a paywall of sorts that neither of us compelled to spend to the $40.99 to reveal. But that too is what I love about her – complete confidence in us to return to the online dating world and have a few laughs about how it all so innocently began over a year ago. We flippantly worked our way through the photos of our peers, happy in knowing that it didn’t matter.
In the past year, I can honestly say that Meg and I have never fought. While many of you might surmise we are just delaying the inevitable, I suggest that what has made us successful is the transparency of communication.
Don’t mistake, we have had many difficult conversation in the past year – those relating to living together, in which city, and children are perhaps the most difficult for us because there is not clear, easy answer. There have been many tears, but our discussions have always been calm and reasoned even when solutions are absent. Yet somehow, we inch closer to resolution which on the surface might not seem like progress, yet for those intimately involved, we feel the progress.
Tonight, she is doing wonderful charity work and being the best and brightest essence of herself. I couldn’t be prouder. Strong and independent, but profoundly like minded and passionately connected. That’s us.
I don’t offer advice to anyone anymore in matters of the heart. My track record sadly speaks for itself. I do however, wish all couples the strength and courage to be honest. I don’t believe in comprising ourselves for the better of the relationship. Sure, you can change the odd habit, but fundamentally changing who you are, doesn’t work in the long term. The relationships with long-term potential are those where you can tackle the hard issues and come away being closer together than further apart, even if nothing is settled.
Peace.