12 Lessons in 12 Months: Year 1 of My Long Distance Relationship

Rachel Wendte
13 min readMay 20, 2019

Once upon a time, in a land that everyone flies over unless they want to see Navy Pier, call a tower by the wrong name, or eat something I will always call tomato pie instead of pizza, two people met.

Photo by Sawyer Bengtson on Unsplash

Some months later, my now boyfriend asked me how he’d gotten lucky enough to meet me.

“You went to this party this one time,” I said, the way we always say. We were lucky, and we were happy. We’re still happy and lucky, but we’re also:

  • Sad
  • Frustrated
  • Lonely

After one and a half years together, he got the great opportunity to advance his career in video game design and work for a new company…in Madison, WI.

“If you don’t want me to go I won’t,” he said, even asking me to come with him.

“Don’t be silly, you goof. There are buses. Cars. Trains. It’s not that far away. I really love you but I really love Chicago, too.” I’m stubborn, in case you haven’t heard. He left. I stayed.

Photo by Todd Trapani on Unsplash

We celebrated Memorial Day in Madison, my cousin’s summer wedding in Chicago. We celebrated his…

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Rachel Wendte

Arts & culture enthusiast who loves all things creative, media related, and cleverly debated. #UXDesigner and Tutor @CareerFoundry.