Well, to be honest, when you are 19 years old and that it's sunny out, you usually have “other things” to do than listening about Kant and his Critique of Pure Reason (two years later, on a rainy day, I read it and didn't understand half of it... but let's not lose our story already). So what was I thinking about? Well, I happened to have a good friend, named Kayla, who invited me to a party at her house. And a rule I gave myself when I decided to be an exchange student was to do as many things as possible (I ended giving a taxidermy to a pheasant once but that's another story too). So there I am, meeting a new bunch of people, around a nice fire, having a couple beers... Okay, I gotta warn you folks, I broke a couple rules but hey, rules are made to be broken aren't they? And I didn't broke the one that says not to get married... Well not yet! Are there some people here who think that a solid relationship should start first with nice friendship? Well, I did but facts showed me that it's not always true. Her name was Lynne, we were meeting for the very first time and she was going to be my girlfriend for the next two and a half years. We both attended Mayo High, senior year, but surprisingly we didn't meet there. What can I say, I'm not
the most observant person! Guilty you honor.

What would you do if you knew you only had fifteen more days to live? You would live you life as much as you could wouldn't you? Living it fully, enjoying every second of it. At that time, we kinda felt the same for our relationship. I was coming back to Belgium in half a month. For all of you who did such a trip, you know how hard it is to come back. I guess that I wanted it to be harder. So we saw eachother as much as we could, spent some time at her cabin on the Mississippi river, learned to know the other one as well as possible. And we got attached.

Brussels, Belgium, July 15th, 8am.
The airport. 10 degrees too warm as usually. The arrival area. We had decided that our time together had been too short and that love is limitless. So there she was. I don't know how to describe you how it feels; try to imagine losing someone very important to you, forever, and then holding them in your arms. There you go. And those were some of the best weeks of my life: we visited Brussels from part to part, had a trip in Bruges, a weekend in Paris, went to a music festival, long walks along the sea, … Then the day-D came and it was time to say goodbye again. Once again we thought we wouldn't see each other
anymore. And once again we did. And again. And again. And now, almost three years later, we're still together.



In a long distance relationship, you just need to adapt a little: I've changed religion, my new god being Skype now, I've learned how to save money and how to spend it all at once, I'm an expert at ordering plane tickets, etc. I don't know how long it will last but what I know is that I will never regret to have given it a try. So hey, if you're tempted, you should give it a try and I wish you the very best!