My husband is from South America and I'm from South East Asia. We had practically 12 hours difference between our time zones. Most people do not believe that long distance or online relationships will ever work. So the chances of succeeding in a long distance online relationship should be even less, right? Wrong and my marriage is a proof of that.

How it all started

I had friends from all over the world whom I met through games and chat rooms. I first met my husband through a mutual friend who comes from South America as well. My husband and I started talking and found out we had a lot in common and soon began to become each other's confidante. Soon, we 'met' each other on webcam and moved on to telephone calls. It was difficult at first because of our different accents but we managed to overcome the embarrassment and the shyness through practice.

How we progressed

Months later, we decided that we had to meet in reality but it was difficult as we were not exactly living in neighboring countries and flight tickets were expensive. However before that, our families had to 'meet' first to prove the seriousness of our relationship. I'm sure secretly, both parties thought that online relationships were not doable especially when we were so far away from each other. So we arranged another webcam meeting, this time with the parents and siblings in front of the computer. One huge obstacle - my husband's family does not speak a word of English so my husband became the translator.

How we met at last

After the meeting, we decided we REALLY had to meet and since both families approved, we purchased a ticket and I flew all the way to South America (alone, scared and almost puking out of nervousness) to meet my husband-to-be and my in-laws. My husband and I got married some weeks after I landed and proved everyone including his relatives wrong that long distance relationships could never work. We even have a newspaper article about our marriage (because no one or few have ever succeeded in an online relationship) to prove it.

How you too can marry your faraway online love

There are many obstacles to overcome when you decide to commit yourself to your long distance online relationship. Some of them will be cultural differences, language barriers, people's disapproval and overcoming time and distance. Humans are adaptable and can learn so cultural and language differences can be overcome when both of you are tolerant and are willing to learn. A good beginning to a long lasting and an eventually successful long distance relationship is understanding and respect.

You will also meet a lot of disapproval or misunderstanding by other people but as long as you believe in your relationship and your family believes in what you are doing, you will have no problems whatsoever marrying whomever you want. Don't let the pessimists influence you to give up your relationship just because the odds of success are against you. A little hope is enough to push you to make it work.

Overcoming time and distance is the most difficult aspect of a long distance relationship. However if you are patient and both of you are willing to work together to make meeting a dream come true, there is no stopping you. You could plan to meet halfway so neither of you have to spend too much and be able to meet earlier than expected.

Conclusion

I am happily married still and now we are both back in Asia. I am glad neither of us gave up during the initial stages of our struggling relationship and we believed strongly that we would get married somehow. Don't let your fear and other people's pessimism get to you because an online long distance relationship IS possible. It could be your only chance to have the girl or guy of your dreams always beside you. Have you got a similar story to mine? Do share your comments with us!