{"id":4832,"date":"2020-03-12T07:00:17","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T07:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/?p=4832"},"modified":"2022-04-13T15:42:18","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T15:42:18","slug":"a-year-abroad-and-a-long-distance-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/a-year-abroad-and-a-long-distance-relationship\/","title":{"rendered":"A Year Abroad And… A Long Distance Relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post is the second in my weekly series where I write about topics that nearly stopped me going on my year abroad and how they have shaped my experience for the better or the worse. This week I am talking about my relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sam and I in April 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the first things I ever told my boyfriend, Sam, was that I was planning to do a year abroad and that if that was going to be an issue then he was free to never see me again… of course, that wasn’t the case. That conversation was back in September 2018, and soon after we properly got together. After this it was much more difficult for me to think about my year abroad, I had just met the love of my life and I was thinking about moving halfway across the world for a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam, of course, wouldn’t let me stay, he knew this had been my dream from an early age and said that there was no way he was ‘holding me back’. I think that being so open with each other helped a lot in preparing for a year abroad for. It meant that Sam was excited for me and we could plan for him to come and visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He supported me in preparing for my move and when the time came, in August 2019, to leave for Canada I was surprisingly unemotional. He made me a playlist to listen to on the plane that consisted of jokey songs so that I wouldn’t be sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My feelings didn’t really hit me until I had arrived at my new house and got my stuff unpacked and realised that I couldn’t speak to Sam because it was 1am in the UK, I got a bit teary but carried on with my day, getting settled in to Vancouver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first few weeks went fairly smoothly, getting used to long-distance was strange but we soon fell into a routine (follow this link<\/a> to read more about settling into a long-distance relationship!). Sam was coming to visit in October and because we were so excited time flew by pretty quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, Sam flew to Vancouver for a week and we had a wonderful time exploring the city and spending time with each other. All too soon though, the day came he had to fly home. We tried not to think about it too much and it broke my heart to watch him walk away from me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n