“I don’t believe in long distance relationships”, he said.

I was 20, in my final year of university, facing graduation in a year and soon to be thrown out on my ass into the real world during one of the most trying period in the world’s recent history. Economic downturn, bird flu, SARS, terrorist attacks etc. etc. etc. while he would soon fly to Boston to start afresh in his first year at Boston University. New environment, new friends to make, somewhere where no one knows who you are and you can be whomever you choose to be.

I knew this would happen; his impending departure. But I always thought that we could always try out the long distance relationship and if it didn’t work, we could always let it die a natural death. What I could not understand was that if we felt so strongly about each other, why put an end to the relationship without first giving LDR a go.

Naturally I fell into depression. Persistent crying… lack of appetite… refusing to get out of bed to head to school. Sure, I met new people in the new academic modules. Even when laughing I thought, I’d never be truly happy again.

But as time heals all wounds and the pain diminished as the memory of it fades, a couple of years later I had moved on and in a new and committed relationship.

We still kept our friendship. After all, we never parted with animosity. So at some point he returned and called me out for a coffee. We got to catching up and soon he explained his visit to town. Apparently he was dating a girl in BU and she was in town for a 6 month student exchange. Before leaving she broke up with him. Student exchanges are exciting. Meeting new people and you could be whoever you want to be…. desperate and heart broken, he caught a flight in pursuit of her, hoping that she would see that they should not have to break up although they are far apart.

I looked at him… “Don’t you see, she’s doing exactly what you did to me?”, I laughed. Karma sure has its way.

To his credit it did him hard knowing that he put me through what he was now experiencing.

That aside, I was still grateful for the experience he put me through. It did come in handy a few years down the road….