BY Abelino Ruiz
LifeAtStart.com Reporter
Long distance relationships never work. I get it. To try to have one would be crazy. But I don’t want normal, I want crazy.
For those that do not already know, I am dating Franka Etzel, an exchange student from Germany. If this is a personal commentary, I assume that I can get pretty personal with everyone. I am not a very emotional, warm, or soft guy. I have never had a girlfriend and I have never wanted one either. I thought they were a waste of time, space, and money. I could never understand how some people could be so infatuated with another person. It didn’t make any sense to me and I hated seeing couples kiss or even hold hands. I have never kissed, loved, or felt a deep unbreakable connection with anyone. That is, until I met Franka. Since then, Franka and I have held hands and kissed in the halls of Start High School. I never thought I would become the epitome of what I disliked the most. But now I realize things from the couple’s point of view. They are in love.
Needless to say, I still try to avoid excessive physical contact with my Deutchland dutchess in public. I still can not stand the obnoxious couples that everybody sees and scoffs at. To be in love at such a young age might seem impossible to the eyes of an onlooker. I’m pretty sure when a teenager says, “I’m in love,” they are never believed. But there will always be doubters and skeptics in the midst of your relationship.
Franka and I have already taken steps to ensure that we can extend our bond beyond her time in America. Recently, I purchased my passport and soon I will be purchasing a plane ticket to Stuttgart, which is close to her hometown of Ulm. I will be there for two months over the summer. If I didn’t have goals to pursue for my future and college to attend, I would mark the bubble next to “one-way.” After I leave, we will most likely FaceTime every night. Due to the change in time zones, I will either be doing overwhelming amounts of college homework or on my way to work while she is lying down to sleep. In addition to nightly FaceTimes, we have developed a plan to see each other in person periodically. We will travel to each other’s hometowns over summer and winter break, taking turns with who goes when. So I will go there for the summer and she will come here for the winter and then she comes here for summer and I go there for winter, and so on. This will go on for three years until she comes here for college. As a final note to the reader, we are not engaged. It’s just a promise ring. Relax.