We survived a four-year, international long-distance relationship. And look at us now.
Hi Explorers! Morgan and Chris hear documenting our journey towards
full-time family travel. This week we were missing our families a little extra
and through looking on social media we noticed that this is happening every day
around the world and it got us thinking it really wasn't that long ago that we
were separated by the Atlantic Ocean. It was not easy but we survived and it is
possible and actually I think that it even builds a foundation for a stronger
relationship. Our first year of college we both took jobs as camp counselors in
the Poconos Mountains and it wasn't love at first sight, I actually had no idea
that Chris and I just didn't happen to have the same exact schedules I thought
that we just happened to teach the same courses and serve lunch at the same time
and it wasn't until later that I found out that that was intentional. Yeah I
would intentionally swap lunch schedules even activity
schedules so that I could hang out or work with Morgan during the summer, but I had no idea and so fast forward to
New Year's we a bunch of people from the states that worked there we decided to
fly out to London to celebrate the New Year and that's when our relationship
started we kind of start vibing then, I was like "Oh he's cute, but he's so shy" You're making me blush. Yeah but he was
so shy but I think that travelling through Europe together that really
brought us very close and I think that we kind of saw a different side of each
other that we didn't get to see as just friends at camp before so long story
short we fell in love and decided oh my gosh this is absolutely insane but let's
try a long-distance relationship yeah that's when it started honestly and I
think that first initial goodbye we we had to like separate after traveling
after two, three weeks that's when it set in, we were like
oh we got to try this now and see where this goes and we kind of do this
now yeah just to give it a whirl so that definitely changed the dynamic when we
said goodbye because we weren't together every day like we had been for weeks and
it just changed things a little bit which leads us to our number one tip
which is crucial - communicate! There's lots of ways to communicate and I think
that when you're not physically able to be together that you kind of have to
make up for that in unique ways so one of the ways that we didn't was we wrote
letters to each other which I thought was really special because you'd wait by
the mailbox and it sounds kind of hokey and old-fashioned but it's really cool
and now we have all these really funny and kind of cringy like love letters that
we signed each other but I really enjoy having them just for reference and for a
nostalgia sake. Words really can't begin to describe how much I miss you
it's like my body is empty and I lake emotion and humor because I try to block
out that I am not with you. Awww that's very poetic. Also when you don't get to see the person you have to
figure out a schedule to communicate and make it a priority I think that we kind
of failed at that to begin with it was just really hard because there was a
five hour time difference so when I would be getting done with work it
would be like very early morning yeah I was tough and that was really hard and
I think that we kind of got on each other's nerves a little bit about that
like I think we're both thoroughly exhausted from working full-time and
also going to school so just figuring out a time and really taking ownership
of your schedule I think that we did that much later in our relationship but
I think that would have definitely behooved us to do that earlier. Don't
forget about your individual goals. While we did make time to communicate with
each other we definitely had a little bit of a struggle figuring out our
personal goals and how to prioritize them. When we decided that yes we
definitely want to try to make this work it was really quickly after we started
dating yeah very fast was three weeks yeah and
we had to figure out what we wanted to do after that because we were in
different countries so Chris was in the middle of his first semester at college
and he you were willing to come over yeah I think at that point I was just
like I was looking online, okay how can I move to the state's you know legally
obviously and how can I still figure out going to school to study film and it was
like Morgan's like no you got stop, you have to do school, you have to
take care of yourself and you have to like achieve your personal goals too
which I think in hindsight was the best absolutely best option to do that at the
time, well schools so much more expensive here so that was a definitely a factor
it had nothing to do with our commitment to each other and I think that we were
both up we had a mutual understanding of that but we also knew that we in order
to be the best people that we could be we had to still stay on track for
certain things and so I do see a lot of people that you chase love and they're
not wrong don't get me wrong but we just wanted to make sure that we didn't have
any regrets and we were doing it as strategically as possible. Do overcome
obstacles. There are so many obstacles okay people in long-distance
relationships have to face including us and I think you just have to get
creative I mean we had to balance schedules, we
were on different sides of the Atlantic Ocean we had financial struggles because
we were flying back and forth so often we were working full-time in addition to
going to school to pay for those flights and all those fun things that we did and
we saw each other which is not cheap and even school schedules I mean I remember
that being like a killer like we saw each other so much we were so fortunate
I don't think we went over three months without seeing each other, over four years Easter, summer
Christmas' we spent things all that time together which you're very
fortunate to be able to do and even things like I have an internship one one
semester and I you know rather than being constrained to England I said "hey
can I get my internship in the US?" and I did and I found one in Chicago which allowed
me to spend even more time with Morgan which is awesome so there's unique ways
that you can overcome certain obstacles that may be in your life in that long distance
relationshop of yours just be creative! Don't give up have an
end goal. We got engaged after six months and it was very important to us into
relationship when it happened because it gave us this end goal in mind we both
knew that it was much more serious and even though we're both at school that
point and we were working hard to t our degrees and better ourselves we knew that there was
end goal and that we were engaged and we knew that once we're finishing school we're gonna
be together and I think that's really important for any couple any
relationship to kind of know where it's going you know and what it looks like
whether it's like a year down the road a couple years five years whatever that
looks like for that long-distance relationship what
the circumstances are it's important to know where it's going
and just to know that the struggles the immediate struggles at least aren't
forever when there's that end goal. When your long-distance journey is finally
over and you're together that doesn't mean that doesn't mean that they are't going to be more obstacles down
the road because when I finally finished school and I got my fiancee visa and I
moved to the states and we got married that's when things got real. And I think that that was definitely a great time to put everything that we had learned in our
long-distance relationship in place because let's face it we did not have
the ideal situation so I was going to school you moved here and we got married
and then we moved directly into my parents house -that was fun and then just
applying to be a citizen that's a huge, huge journey and there's lots of
paperwork and there's interviews and all sorts of high-level stress situations
that go along with that but I think that we were able to pull through because
we're already a pretty strong couple and we'd been doing it for so many years and
being together just made it so much easier yeah and I think about to like
all the time that we spend apart and kind of heartbreak at the airport having
to say goodbye, because it is it's gut-wrenching it's so horrible
say goodbye at the airport I have to go to a plan for by yourself like
and have to hold those tears in, but you think about all those times and then just go
this is easy we can do this because like we've already been apart, that
was the hard part now this is the easy part the the lessons that we learned along the way as well about
communicating and patient and making time for each other we still do that now
and I think those things built for a really strong foundation for our
relationship and for our marriage and for our future so we're better
because of it. Yeah and I really hope that this can inspire
you especially if you're in this type of situation you know like we said before
it's not easy but it's possible so hopefully you can make it too! So please
comment down below we want to know where you're watching from we want to know if
you're in a long-distance relationship or if you've ever been in one and what
works for you what didn't, thinking about starting one you know yeah it's a good
time right? Please if you haven't already subscribed please do so and ring that
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mash that like button, I'll see you next week
adios! We both got engaged - I say we both- obviously we both got engaged. It would be like me getting engaged to someone else. We both got engaged to other people and decided to get engaged to each other and then they got engaged.
And we're best friends, we meat every Thursday for pot luck. This is the secret sauce right here- laughter- yeah, laughter darling
yeah we are able to communicate I'm sorry. We want to kill each other sometimes.