Quarantine Dating: Dating Challenges

New Year's Eve 2019

          During the Coronavirus ( Covid-19) we've been told that the only way we can remain safe until a working vaccine is available is by social distancing ourselves from people we aren't living with. This has lead us to quarantine alone or with family members we are living with while trying to create some type of normalcy with others outside the home. There's been a lot of trends taking place since the start of the pandemic and lockdowns around the world. Celebrities and television show hosts are continuing to record new episodes for their talk shows from locations in their homes; people hosting virtual hangouts with friends; binge watching on streaming apps; creating entertainment on social media; making videos on the Tic Toc app; and now planning virtual dates and weddings. Virtual dating has by far caught my interest the most. I find it very cute and creative how people were taking the extra mile to spend time with love interests from a distance in creative ways. In this article, I discuss how I personally been handling quarantine dating thus far and virtual dates I would love to do with my boyfriend Logan.

          In my earliest articles, Multi-Dating: Tinder Edition, Who Did I End Up Choosing? Part 2 of Multi-Dating: Tinder Edition, and Tinder Dating: One Year Later, I mentioned details on my dating life and adventures. Through my dating experiences I've been able to break out of my shell in the dating world and faced many different challenges; but dating during a Pandemic is a whole different adventure that I wasn't expecting nor prepared for.

          In the beginning of this year, I left the United States (U.S) to live and work in Spain for six months as an English teacher assistant. Around that time, me and Logan had recently rekindled our relationship.We briefly separated for a couple months because he felt as though I deserved better than what he was giving me and that he needed space to grow. These were his words to me. The entire time we were separated, we stayed in contact and wasn't really interested in seeing other people. It would be around October or November when I brought up the idea to him about getting back together and would he be okay with a temporary long distance relationship. He mentioned how he didn't like long distance relationships but he would think it over after I gave him legit reasons why our relationship could still work. After a few days from our conversation, he decided that he would give our temporary long-distance relationship a try. The last time we would see each other would be on New Year's Day. I would get on my first flight to Spain on January 6, 2020.

          During my time in Spain, Logan and I stayed in contact through the use of Facebook messenger. We had been using Facebook messenger for years before I went overseas so there was some normalcy while we were apart. I did feel some type of way when I learned that he was unable to visit me in Spain because of the inability to afford the flights and other necessities. The original plan before I left was for he to visit me for either Valentine's day, February 14th which is in fact one of my favorite holidays, or for my birthday in March. Instead, I got a "lovely" Valentine's day text message and videochatted on my birthday when I came back from work that day.  Since Valentine's Day isn't really celebrated in Spain on the same day nor the same way as people in the U.S, it just felt like a regular day at work so I was easily able to distract myself from not thinking about not being able to celebrate how I hoped to do. Spain's version of Valentine's day is called, "St. George's Day" or "La Diada de Sant Jordi". St. George's day is celebrated on the 23rd of April. On this day, ladies get a rose from their lover and ladies give the guys a book as an exchange. I was very much looking forward to celebrating this holiday before the pandemic took place in Europe. I just might see if Logan would be interested in celebrating Spain's version of Valentine's day next year. At least I know he will appreciate a nice book.

          If you thought we only had to worry about a long distance relationship while I was in Spain, you will be mistaken. The reason why he was unable to come visit me in Spain was because he had to save up money so he can move to his own place which so happens to be located in the South of the United States. That meant that he was no longer going to be in Maryland when I returned in the end of June. This was of course before the lockdowns around the world took place. 

          When I returned back to Maryland, U.S; at the end of March, Logan decided to move to his new place on the first of May because he thought maybe the lockdowns would somewhat be lifted. During that month, he came to visit me three times before he left the state. If you're thinking what I think you're thinking then yes I know we broke the social distancing rule. Not one, but three times, but we were in two different countries for three months so seeing each other in person was an Essential!

          It has now been almost a month since he's been at his new place and a restart of our long distance relationship until I move down there with him and I got to say, being in a long distance relationship while overseas was easier to deal with then it is now with us living in two different states. While overseas if we had a hard time understanding each other through text messaging, I would instantly video call him to get clarity and he would answer so we could talk it out. By being in Spain, I realized that the best form of communication for us when we got into a disagreement was through video or voice calling. Once he left to his new home, the video calls kept getting rejected and he would give me a different reason why he rejected it. I even tried to set up a virtual date and he conveniently forgot which day it was supposed to be on. Recently, I became feed up with him not wanting to video chat nor voice call with me that I couldn't take it anymore and even asked him if he wanted to stay in the relationship. YES! I went there. Fortunately, he did want to remain in the relationship and eventually agreed to video chatting or voice calling at least once a week until I move in with him. So we are now back on good terms, but I got to say long distancing in a relationship is no joke.

          As I mentioned in the first paragraph, the virtual dates has inspired me to think of some possible virtual dates for me and Logan. One of those ideas was a paint night where we try to paint the same image. Once he get some art materials, we can give this a try. Another idea was a virtual game night. This idea seems like the most reasonable since we don't need a lot of equipment. Playing games like "Would you rather" or "Truth or Dare" with a drink sounds pretty fun to me. And lastly, a virtual movie date. Even though it's possible to do this since we share the same streaming apps, it would never be close to being the same as watching the movie together next to each other. But, now I have a question for you. Are you out there virtually dating or breaking social distancing rules to see babe?