Why is it really so hard to believe that long-distance relationships can work? I feel very alone at the moment, not only because I am far from the guy I love, but also because everyone is so skeptical and cynical about our relationship that the network of support isn't there. It isn't a surface thing either - people try to act happy for me, want to believe that it will work, but deep down they just can't. I see it in their eyes. Some are condescending towards me, thinking how naive I must be. Others pity me.

Interestingly, I wouldn't exist if it weren't for a successful long-distance relationship. My great-grandmother and great-grandfather met just once or twice before he went to the war - he was gone for 4 years. They could only converse through letters, too - but in the end they were married, and had my grandmother. 80 years ago it was commonplace. Now it seems that we have evolved to a point where marriages don't last and long-distance relationships are impossible - a very sad thing I think. So I figure that if Shin and I can make it (and it will be easier for us than my great-grandparents, thanks to emails and phonecalls) then we will deserve every praise, and no doubt will survive anything.

However, that doesn't really help me now. I don't want to prove everyone wrong about us - I would rather some support. I realise I am young. I realise that it is a big thing to commit to someone long term, let alone to someone in another country. But I think that the reward we'll get in the end will be far greater, and well worth the struggle. I don't want anyone else, because no one can make me feel the way he makes me feel.

I may only be 20, but this is the second time I've ever been in love.
The first guy didn't love me as much as I loved him. Shin gives me everything he can. So when I think of our future, my heart is glad - something which is new to me.

If we can have the life-long happiness my great-grandparents enjoyed until they died, how great would that be. People nowadays are so averse to taking the road less travelled, the road which requires more effort, so their rewards are small. You do, after all, reap what you sow.