Starting Over

So yesterday I posted my introduction and in it mentioned that I'm not originally from Indiana. I moved here from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in January, 2008 so that my boyfriend Marco and I could be together. It's not really an exciting story, nor is it all that funny, but I hesitate to say it's not weird. Although internet dating has gained momentum and popularity over the last ten years or so, it is still seen by many as odd and sometimes even dangerous.


My experiences with internet dating have been good overall. I mean, Marco found me on the internet, so who am I to complain? Our meeting was almost accidental, in a way. When we met, I had given up entirely on dating of any kind, online or off. At some point, I decided to get cocky and write a compatibility quiz to show that I am quite different from most others. It included questions about communication mostly, as that is, by far and away, the most important aspect when it comes to determining how successful a relationship will be. The problem with this is that I was also assuming that nobody would come close to "passing" my test. To make a long story a bit shorter, Marco did indeed pass my test... and then proceeded to contact me about it on August 1, 2007. He didn't give me some stupid one-liner, nor did he brag about his talents, nor did he really expect me to write back. Honestly, I just couldn't help but be charmed by him right from the start. He was... humble. He wasn't the braggart or swaggart that I was used to attracting; he was, in fact, quite the opposite.

At first, we just wanted to be friends. Another long-distance relationship was the absolute last thing on my mind. But then, just within a week or so, the friendship shifted towards romance... how, I still don't know. It could've been how we could talk for hours and not get bored with each other... or it might've been how we talked about anything and everything. I wasn't quite ready to fall in love again, but somehow... it just happened. He turned out to be everything I ever wanted and all the things I needed but never knew how to ask for or get. Ready made, and ready to love again. Neither one of us knew what would be in store for us, just that it would be a team effort from there on out.

As we learned more about each other, we found it more and more difficult to spend any time apart. We talked endlessly on the phone and online. Even while I was at work on the weekend nights, we talked. He kept me company and in high spirits. I'd have to say that the beginnings of our romance have been some of the happiest days of my life so far, although it was somewhat depressing to be separated by 13 hours of driving.

In late September, the idea of me driving here to visit him came up. I was hesitant at first but eventually decided that I really didn't have anything to lose. Afterall, this wouldn't be the first time I had made a long and rather expensive trip to visit a man. I've flown to Kansas and Illinois to visit lovers I'd had at the time, but I hadn't ever driven so far to meet anyone. I can only imagine how worried my parents were about it all, too. They were both reluctant to really talk with Marco at all, but I don't think it was really because they didn't want to know about him... I think it was more because they were as used to seeing my relationships go up in flames as I was to being burned. Like I said, this wouldn't be the first time I traveled for love.

When it finally came time for me to visit in mid-December, my folks told me that I had better come home. I told them it wouldn't be a problem as I still didn't know just how attached I was to Marco. The trip here was long, icy, and dangerous -- my brakes were failing by the time I was halfway here, although I was blissfully unaware of this fact until I got into town. By the time I got here, two lines were corroded through, due to the amount of salt that we have on the roads in the Upper Peninsula during the winter. To top it off, I actually got lost when trying to find Marco's place. His folks ended up coming to get me and show me the way there, even though I was just across the street from it and just didn't know it. So yeah, I got to meet his parents before I even met him. I'm the luckiest girl in the world having such awesome, caring, and just great in-laws, though. (Yes, I know, technically they're not my in-laws yet, but they may as well be.)

The day after arriving here, I got to see the underside of my car for the first time when we took it to get the brakes fixed and my god, I was shocked. Everything was just rust, flaking off to the lightest touch. We (meaning my parents, via ATM, and I) got the car fixed, and two days later, I broke a ball joint while going to get a slushie. Heh. I'm still glad that I didn't take the car trouble for a sign of our relationship being "cursed," although I certainly did joke about it... and I still do. There's been a plethora of happenings that would make just about anyone think that this relationship is cursed in some way or another, but those are also stories for another time.

So when it finally came time for me to go back to Michigan, I felt that I could no longer call that "going home" as my new home was now wherever Marco was, in his heart. One of the most difficult things I've ever done was to leave him behind and go back up north. I cried for a good forty miles out of town, as well as at numerous other points throughout the trip, for having had to go back to Michigan without him. I knew from the moment we met that we couldn't live without each other anymore now that we'd met.

Just a month after arriving back in Michigan, I left again, but this time with my car packed up with most everything I own. I moved in with Marco on January 13, 2008 and we haven't been separated since. Well, actually, I took off for Tennessee with a friend for an overnight trip once last summer, but I won't ever do that again... but I still have a story about that, too.

We've had our ups and downs, ins and outs... but overall, we're so happy to just be together. So much has changed for both of us in the two short years that we've been together with the exception of our love for one another. If anything, we just love each other more every day. Sure, I still tell him every once in a while that I want to go back to Michigan and that I hate him and that meeting him was the worst thing that ever happened to me, but we both know all too well by now that when those things are said that I honestly don't mean them. My borderline personality disorder makes it difficult for me to be the most loving and caring girlfriend all the time, but it does help us both to be more open with our feelings and thoughts. We both know that our love is one of the most genuine and strong that this world has and will have ever seen.

In fact, it burns so hot that it took a house down with it once. No, not really... but the house did burn down. There's a story about that (and how we got through it), too. For another time....