I think everyone at one point in his or her life has thought about what it would be like to meet someone while traveling, fall in love and have the perfect love story… In a perfect world, meeting someone from a different country would be easy, they would move to be with you or you them, and it would be happily ever after. But the reality of it is, when it comes time to leave your travels behind, you’ll have to leave them behind as well. Leaving you with a long distance relationship and a lot of things to figure out…
You become a different person when traveling
Whether it is on exchange or just a couple of weeks of travel, you change as a person. Traveling usually involves leaving behind everything and everyone you know and going out to explore this new place. This means you become less stressed and become more adventurous. When it comes time to leaving your s/o behind and heading home, they may not fit into your home life as well as you had anticipated and hoped.
You have to rely on video chats, phone calls and texting to maintain the relationship
This is pretty common for any long distance relationship
What if there is a time difference to worry about?
If you start dating someone who is in a completely different time zone than you, it becomes very difficult to try and communicate with him or her. If the change is only a few hours, it may be more feasible but when the time difference becomes a day ahead/behind or you’re sleeping while they’re awake, communication becomes a huge hurdle.
You may only get to see the person a few times a year
The reality will set in that traveling is a very expensive thing to do and you won’t be able to just pick up and see them once a month.
One of you will be very unfamiliar with your s/o’s lifestyle at home
While with your s/o from a different country, you will be able to meet their family and friends and see their whole life. But once you leave to go back home, your s/o will be completely in the dark about what your family, friends, and life are like at home. This may cause jealousy or fights because they feel left out or as if your life is moving on without them.
At some point, one of you will have to move to the other
In order to make the relationship work, at some point, one of you will have to give up your entire home life and move to a brand new country. This can become a very difficult thing to decide and can cause a lot of animosity within the relationship.
I’m not trying to say that meeting a significant other from another country could never work because with every failed long distance relationship there is a successful one trailing behind. All I’m trying to say is, sometimes the fantasy is better than the reality. There are a lot of things to consider when it comes time to dating someone from a different country, and it’s important to think about all the options available before committing yourself to a long distance relationship! It’s up to you to determine whether or not the relationship is worth the work!