Love in the Time of Corona
Being forced away from someone you love is a tragedy. Being forced away from someone as you were hoping to fall in love? Now that’s just frustrating. Bad luck, if you’d like to call it. And I had just that.
If you know me, you know I had been on this uneventful search for quite some time. And often the search ended in nothing special. The longest I had ever been with someone since my biggest break up was four months — and that one went nowhere for how long we tried.
A day before Valentine’s of this (godforsaken) year, I made a match. A week later, we went on a date, and I personally felt my luck starting to change. While it’s nothing new to say I was falling, I will say that this one felt right. So just my luck that, after finally making this genuine connection with someone, the world blows up in flames — or rather, catches a very bad virus.
We had been dating for a mere three weeks before the quarantine began. Imagine my dread when the announcement came up — I immediately thought, shit, well this one’s doomed. You can’t blame me for being the pessimist that I was in this situation. If you’ve never experienced the fizzing out of a good connection, well, you’re one of the lucky ones — of which I am not. Ako nga, isang araw lang ng masinsinang usapan, biglang multo na lang sa susunod. The philosophy of dating in this day and age rewards instant and constant gratification. It’s hard enough to spark a fire when you’re dating and actually seeing each other — how much more when you can’t? So yeah, shit.
Well… I was wrong. We’ve been in love for six months and a day now.
The story of how that went is an incredibly arduous one — filled with anxiety, genuine effort, and a lot of communication. Stuff for another post, maybe. Writing and sharing about my love life isn’t something I’m all too confident about, so give me some time. There’s a lot I have in mind that just doesn’t fit neatly into words.
All I can say is that I’m happy. We’re happy.
I do feel that if it’s something the both of you are willing to work on and keep at, a pandemic won’t stop love from blossoming. I guess I was lucky enough to find someone who wanted to make it with me.
PS. Yes, we made it official in the middle of the quarantine. But we’re pretty damn sure this ain’t no quaranfling.
