My Online Love Story

“So how did you two meet?”

This is the first question that anyone who ever meets me and Scott asks. I’m not sure if I should be flattered at them taking such an interest or insulted that they’d be so nosy. Either way, I understand people’s curiosity.

I am from England and Scott is from America, so it’s unlikely that we met in a bar one night.

I also realise that if you’ve been reading my blog since the beginning (“Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?” *taps mic*) then you’ve probably wondered why this story has never been told.

To tell the truth, it was partly for privacy and partly because back in the beginning neither of us knew if it was going to last. Nobody wants to be the person who declared all-out love for someone online only to break up a couple of weeks later.

But here we are, over three years after we first met. And maybe now, our online love story can be told.

It was early 2011 and I was still flying high from my solo trip to Vietnam. I was loving life. I was definitely not looking to meet anyone. Rather, I was looking for my next adventure.

But we all know that life hands things to you when you were least expecting them.

Scott discovered my blog through mutual followers on Twitter and left the odd comment on some of my original posts. I did the same and I realised that not only was he cute, but also had a sense of humour. My interest was piqued.

We Tweeted back and forth and the Tweeting led to adding each other on G Chat. We spent hours talking to each other at random times of the day and night (due to time difference).

On the second day of chatting online, Scott asked me to be his “plus one” at an amazing wedding that he was invited to in New York. It was unexpected and definitely sudden, but that was how quickly we knew that we were going to get on. We’d hadn’t even Skyped yet at that point.

After I’d surprised myself and accepted his offer of accompanying him to the wedding, we decided we should see each other face-to-face (virtually). So we Skyped. And we chatted. And we messaged. And we Skyped some more.

By the time I touched down in St. Louis to meet Scott in person that May, we had already been talking to each other every day for three months. It was like meeting someone for the first time yet feeling as though you’d known them for years all at the same time.

We spent five days together, feeling awkward about finally meeting in person, but the dynamic between us changed and we realised that maybe this was something more than we’d both admitted to ourselves. We were both planning long term *solo* trips that didn’t include each other. How were we going to make this work?

I left him at the airport teary-eyed and we consoled ourselves with the fact that we’d see each other again at the wedding a couple of months later.

After a whirldwind weekend in New York, it was clear that neither of us was going to be travelling solo anymore and we had inadvertantly started planning a trip together.

We booked one-way flights to New Zealand for the following February. Together. Travelling solo was no longer an option.

When we left on our round-the-world trip we had only spent a total of fourteen days together in person, but every day together online. We didn’t know how it was going to pan out. We’d gone from international dating across the Atlantic to being in each other’s company 24/7.

We were both worried that this would either make or break us.

Judging by the fact that you’re reading this post two years later, it’s safe to say that it made us. Being together every day felt natural and we work together well as a partnership. I’ve never regretted our decision to book those plane tickets.

The rest is history…

Funnily, as I was writing this post this week, a video was released of Bill Murray crashing a bachelor party in the US and giving some sage advice that relates to my whole online love story.

“If you have someone that you think is the one … take that person and travel around the world.

Buy a plane ticket for the two of you to travel all around the world and go to places that are hard to go to and hard to get out of.

And … when you land at JFK and you’re still in love with that person, get married.”

– Bill Murray

The video is here if anyone wants to watch it. I cried. You probably won’t, but then again, that’s why it’s my story to tell and not yours.

So now you know.