Today we had over a friend of the family and his new girlfriend. He just got divorced last year and we haven't seen him for almost two years. They came over for a BBQ, it was overall a nice relaxed day.

Except I had a revelation.

He asked me today, after I mentioned Will, how Will and I met.

I told him the truth. We met online. That's why we're in a long distance relationship. I saw him for the first time in our now two years of being together in December. I'm not ashamed of that fact, to me it's no different than the people that are pen pals and fall in love, only Will and I get more frequent contact. It's no big deal to me.

But as soon as I said it, he and his girlfriend both looked away and the table went quiet. My mom said we'd met him in December and he was a nice person, etc, and then my dad started telling them about New York.

I didn't think much of it then but now that I've wound down and can think about the day, I realized this is the way it will be for me and Will for a very very long time. People will always judge us for how we met. We didn't go looking to find someone, it's not about sex, it's simply two people that bumped into each other and clicked. It's nothing strange to me. Not at all.

Thinking about it now I wonder how it would be to date someone obviously outside my race. How mixed race couples must feel so often. Maybe every single day in certain places. That they're looked at as "different" and strange by some. To me it doesn't matter, I actually think the prettiest children I've ever seen were mixed race lol Getting off topic here lol

What I'm saying is, people don't understand Will and me. They don't understand that it's nothing dirty and shameful. It's just love, it's friendship, it's finding a wonderful companion. But for so many people meeting someone, and dating, online is still incredibly taboo.

And I was thinking of how we'll handle it, because people will ask. They'll always ask. And I'll always answer truthfully, because I don't find anything wrong with what I've done. I don't find anything wrong with falling in love.

It's also made me have great respect for people that deal with these kind of preset notions on an everyday basis in their relationships.

I'll also admit to wondering what we tell our children whenever we have them. Do we try and explain how we met? Do we make something up to protect THEM from being judged, from them hearing people say things about their parents? Or do we lay it all out with a take it or leave it attitude?

Following the same line of thought I encountered today, if you meet your significant other in a bar, does that make you a drunk? What about a club? A church means you're both perfect people? A wedding? At work? In a gas station, strip club, McDonald's, school, nursing home, funeral home, picking your child up from school or daycare, grocery store, another country, state fair, being set up by a friend/mother, shopping, waitressing, speed dating, Home Depot? What does where we meet the person we love, have to do with who we are? Have to do with what our relationships are? When does the line between acceptable and taboo get crossed?


(Do I really need to tell you this is me and Will? lol [Love you baby, you're worth everything.])