iormina hacienda: Long-distance relationships: Do they work?

equestriatola
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Location: Western WA, but hoping for LA

Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:13 am?? ?Post subject: Long-distance relationships: Do they work?

Lately, I've gotten desperate (bad social skills, people thinking I'm a maniac, etc.), because there is no girl with what I have (Aspie's, in other words) out here in the PNW. So..... I've decided to broaden my horizons, and look outside there area. I know, LDRSes have their risks.... what am I to do? I am just... I can't some up with the word. Let's seek some advice about them (long-distance relationships), and be serious about this. I have no advice about this, sadly. _________________ GO SEAHAWKS! [IMG]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e369/garfysama/seahawkshq3.png[/IMG]

Rorberyllium
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Joined: Sep 10, 2012
Posts: 77
Location: Maryland, United States

Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:01 am?? ?Post subject:

Long distance relationships require a ton of trust and faith in a person, but they can work. It helps to have a set goal in mind for when you're going to meet up (and eventually move in together?) and constantly working towards that. Also keeping things open at least until the first meeting is a good policy, but ultimately that's up to whatever the partners agree upon. It's not a replacement for short-distance relationships and physical interaction. Continue working on honing your social skills with others before you first meet.

1000Knives
What Would Brian Boitano Do?
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:40 am?? ?Post subject:

I'd say they CAN, but it's more a matter of time. My friend married a girl he met online. However they met when he was in middle school, and he married her when he was like 21, but before they were married, they knew each other in person (with her living in his house for like 3-4 months while she found a place to stay in this state) for about 2 years. So that leaves a total of....7 years or so of knowing the person? They initially met on an anime forum, and then played WoW together. She's a nice girl, just perfect for my friend, I don't think my friend would do better in a million more tries. I talked to one other girl who worked at Radio Shack, and she met her boyfriend online and they moved in with each other. She knew him for like 2-3 years. So it's not like they can't work or anything like that, just the main thing is time is different online, I think. In some ways, online is more intimate, and in others less, so time to get to know a person is different. Just speaking of platonic friendships, I finally met one of my internet friends in person this summer, and I've known him since like 2004 or 2005. It was quite seemless meeting him, not really a case of meeting someone from the internet and being surprised. It was like meeting someone I knew all my life, because, well, I knew him for 1/3 of it. The friendship extended past online, when I had no internet for a bit, we'd call each other, we'd send each other packages (just random things lying around our houses we didn't need anymore, but the other person could use, ie, games, clothes), those sorta things. So in all the relationships that I've seen that were successful online, the common thread seems to be a lot of time with the other person. That's the only way I've really seen them work and transition to real life. Online is interesting in that online, in some ways you can get to know a person better, and in some ways you won't. Online sometimes we'll reveal a lot more about ourselves, our past, etc, than we will to people we know in person, just because of the anonymity of online, but then you don't get to witness the person "in action" everyday and their dealings with you and others. Or, worst case scenario, can just BS everything completely online. So that's sort of a tradeoff. The other thing is online doesn't really have a higher success rate either, you just don't have to deal with as "real" consequences for failure. Again, in my dealings with platonic friends, I used to have like 20 AIM friends, now I got like 3. People can just stop talking to you after a while, or get legitimately busy and not contact you, or just straight out tell you that you suck one day and block you. Lastly, I think online, one thing is it does is it removes barriers. I may not have met my online friends I have now if I didn't meet them online. I just probably wouldn't have talked to them based on first appearances, but online I've had friends that were quite different than me (sometimes preppy rich kids, haha) and basically the type of people I'd have never gotten the chance to know well in real life, and it makes sorta both sides recognize I guess the shared humanity of the other person. So I don't think geography matters quite as much as that when talking to people online, though to be fair, some geographical places are better than others, and unlike others here, I don't totally discount geography as a huge factor in your social life (which is why I plan to move someday.) So I don't write all this to dissuade you, but all I'm saying is, online isn't really magic or anything like that. And it'll likely take a lot of time for you to know the person, both know them and meet them. But there is a chance of success, so if you do wanna try, go for it. Could end up well for you, just keep those issues in mind. _________________ But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.

Squirsh
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Wolfheart
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eric76
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hyperlexian
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:09 am?? ?Post subject:

yes, it can work. i met my boyfriend here. we first vaguely saw each other around in late 2010, then started talking in earnest in late spring of 2011. in 2 weeks i am moving in with him, thousands of miles away. we actually chose each other over people who were interested in us in real life. but it helped that we had a goal of being together eventually, as opposed to expecting it to stay online indefinitely. we did meet in person for a week. the online chemistry carried over to real life, which was also awesome. i'd had some experience with online dating before so i kind of knew whether it was going to translate or not. something else that helped was that in the early days we had a lot of time available to talk, so we could really interact for long stretches and get to know each other quite well. _________________ coming soon, to a city near (some of) you

minotaurheadcheese
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Joined: Apr 21, 2012
Posts: 405
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 6:34 am?? ?Post subject:

Wolfheart wrote:

Avoid a long distance relationship, get outside and do some real socializing.

There's nothing not "real" about knowing someone online, and having a long distance relationship doesn't mean you can't also socialize in person. Choosing to be with someone far away isn't necessarily about being incapable of "getting" someone closer, sometimes it's simply because you actually do like them and care about them more than local people.

For those who need what a strictly local relationship has to offer, there's nothing wrong with that. But for some people long distance can work, because they don't want to limit their feelings based on geography and probability.

This is the 21st century people, the prejudice of "real life" only being a small traditionally-sanctioned subset of the ways people live and interact really needs to be reevaluated.
_________________
"And there are days when I would be away . . . Oh, wherever men of my sort used to go, long ago. Wandering on paths that other men have not seen. Behind the sky. On the other side of the rain." -Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Jono
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 8:14 am?? ?Post subject: Re: Long-distance relationships: Do they work?

equestriatola wrote:

Lately, I've gotten desperate (bad social skills, people thinking I'm a maniac, etc.), because there is no girl with what I have (Aspie's, in other words) out here in the PNW.

So..... I've decided to broaden my horizons, and look outside there area. I know, LDRSes have their risks.... what am I to do? I am just... I can't some up with the word. Let's seek some advice about them (long-distance relationships), and be serious about this. I have no advice about this, sadly.

I would suggest not looking specifically for aspie girls. They are fewer in number than men with Asperger's, so allowing the possibility for your potential gf to be NT would provide a better chance of finding one. Just make sure that let them know that have AS.

Tim_Tex
Professor Hineybottom
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