An Unexpected LDR | Dating During COVID-19

When I met my boyfriend a year ago, we were both living in Manhattan, with no major moves in sight. I remember when I thought about dating in college, especially my senior year, I felt like I had to end it when we graduated and left Davis. By the final quarter of my senior year, I had committed to moving to NYC and knew starting anything would most likely end with someone (me) getting hurt. Luckily for me I didn't meet anyone and moved to New York with a longing for my old friends and family, but no major heartbreak.

The dating scene in New York is tough to say the least. I met a few people that seemed to have good intentions in the beginning and ended up being absolute dumpster fires. I have heard multiple horror stories from my friends about their own city dating experiences and started to give up any remaining hope on meeting someone. All I wanted was to meet someone who was smart, funny, nice and cute. Was that too much to ask? When I voiced these qualities to some friends I was told you get three max. Finding a guy with all four of those would be almost impossible.

Little did I know that in April of 2019 I would finally meet someone that checked all of these boxes and more. I'll try to keep the cheese to a minimum, but I finally understand why people are willing to put their heart on the line in order to pursue someone they care about. It's nice to know there is someone out there that shares my interests and appreciates my weird quirks and is always down to eat at whatever NYC restaurant has amazing reviews, no matter how long the wait is. Dating in New York became fun and opened up a new world to me. I went to comedy shows and ate at some of the best hole in the wall places. I met new people and started to feel even more at home on this new coast.

When COVID-19 began to leave it's mark on the city, both of us left our Manhattan apartments and headed to the Jersey suburbs. We are both fortunate enough to safely work from home, but this meant I needed to make a choice. With the US creating more and more restrictions I decided it would be best to return to California and ride this out with my parents, just in case they completely banned national travel. I never expected for us to be in a long distance relationship, but just like anything else during this time we're making it work. Here are a few things we're doing that can be helpful when try to maintain connection during our mandated distancing time.

1. Facetime, skype, zoom, microsoft teams, google meets.

2. Watch the same show and discuss! Some of our favorites have been Top Chef, Tiger King and Too Hot to Handle.

3. Send silly pictures over text. Sometimes a double chin or crossed eyed selfie can be just what you need.

4. Send a card or letter. Let's bring back snail mail!

5. Have game nights with your friends! There are so many online versions of games like Pictionary, Cards Against Humanity and Jeopardy.

6. Host a trivia night.

7. Send memes or gifs via text.

8. Start using Snapchat again. There's some interesting face filters on that app.

9. Send simple "Good Morning" or "Good Night" texts.

10. Try a new recipe and share results!