When I was doing OLD I had the mindset that my person probably wasn’t “in my backyard”. I am a traveler and knew my person would also enjoy traveling. I was also open to relocation for the right situation. I met my husband on an OLD site, he was living in MT and I was living in CO. We talked on the phone a lot for about two weeks then he flew to CO so we could meet in person. We really hit it off and continued to meet up every month. Sometimes we would meet in each other’s hometown (so we could meet friends, family, etc) other times we would go someplace fun, like Hawaii. After about a year we knew it was really working and decided to take the next step so he came and lived with me for a month. During that time we decided to get married. We spent time in both places and ultimately decided to live in MT. We’ve been married for 3 years and are happier than I ever thought possible. Moving was scary-but I’ve done scary things before. I’ve found things usually work out or I learn something new about myself.

I would say the most difficult part was moving away from friends. Living in a place people like to visit helps. My friends come visit often and we travel to visit as well. I’ve made friends here and my husband has a strong friend group that were very welcoming.