I have been reminiscing today about the good old days! Actually twenty years ago today I met my first foreign friend in the flesh. Her name was Minna Puurtinen, from Finland and I had been her penfriend for nearly a year. It was also my first foreign trip abroad on my own without any family. I stayed with her and her parents just out side of the Finnish capital of Helsinki. She is special in my memory as she was also my first girlfriend. Over the next eighteen months we managed to spend about ten weeks together. Not long really and nowhere long enough to have a proper relationship. Neither of us would commit to moving to either country full time. My shyness at the time did not help matters and we eventually decided to call it a day. We stayed in touch by mail for about another six months, we have never been in contact since.
I guess the moral of this is that if anyone is going to attempt a similar long distance relationship then you must be prepared to make some kind of commitment. Be this moving yourself to be with the other person or the other person moving vice versa. Don't think like I did when I was young and stupid believing that being with someone for a few weeks here and there would constitute a relationship it probably wont work!
I guess I have learnt my lesson. If I was ever to get myself in the position where I would want a similar relationship with someone again, then I now know that making a commitment to being with that person would be the only way a relationship could possibly work.
