mdolla: 06/20/17

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

10 Stories Proved That Physical Distance Could Never Be the Roadblock of True Love!

After all the ups and downs in your love life and all the misery of not being able to find the one, you have finally met the person who makes you feel like on top of the world and who you can’t imagine spending the rest of your life without. However, there is a catch. A huge one, actually. Measurable by miles.

Even though you believe that your love is strong enough, the constant struggle involved in keeping a long distance relationship can at times wear you down, and make you question if it’s all worth it. The constant juggling between different time zones, the endless phone calls, the texting, the Facetiming, the video chats, the worrying, the missing, the waiting, the planning, the travelling… As if keeping a relationship isn’t challenging enough, for long distance couples, everything is so much more complicated.

That being said, it is important to know that you are not alone in your struggles and challenges. People have been keeping long distance relationships since forever, even in the pre-internet era, when their ways of communication were much more restricted.

If you are blessed enough that you have met your true soul mate, remember that love is, after all, the most important thing, and so worth the initial struggle to keep in touch and organize meetings. If you need the additional encouragement to keep going, make sure to read through some of the most heartwarming stories about long distance love that managed to overcome being apart for so long.

Travelers’ love tale

It was only logical for Megan and Mike, two world-wide travelers to find each other on a trip. Even though Megan is from Australia and Mike from America, they both took a trip to Africa at the same time, which introduced them to a life of long distance relationship.

Despite the distance and pessimistic comments by people surrounding them, Megan and Mike have managed to maintain their long distance relationship for three years before marrying each other and starting a life together. Megan provides their recipe for successful long distance relationship – maintaining communication, romance and meeting up.

10 years of long distance love

For Carla and her husband, a long distance relationship is the way of life, ever since they first started their romance that would turn into a marriage with children, ten years ago. Being a military wife has many challenges, but they have managed to keep their relationship strong and their love lasting by using every possible means of communication available.

Strong love and commitment

Karen and Jonathan have learned that true love and dedication can always overcome even the toughest challenges of being in a long distance relationship.

A happy ending

After a couple years of long distance and parental problems, Tanu and her boyfriend have managed to get their happy ending and prove that a long distance means nothing when the feelings are real.

“One day closer and one day stronger”

One of the most encouraging pieces of advice on the struggles included in long term relationships are coming from Tyler Burnett, who learned through his experience of being in a long term relationships that it is all worth it.

From unexpected to long distance love story

Another great love story that went from unexpected to committed long distance relationship.

Bloggers’ romance

Ashley and Peter’s relationship started online and is going strong thanks to the technology that allows them to video chat at least once a day. They agree that communication is the most important thing for keeping a long distance relationship strong.

An improvised proposal

Beautiful and heartwarming story about a long distance couple who had to improvise on the traditional proposal and do it via Skype, yet they managed to endure all the hardships the physical distance involves, for the sake of love.

From longing to furniture cleaning

Hilary shares her beautiful love story that went from long distance to living together. She and her boyfriend Mickael have gone from longing for each other to adjusting to living together and respecting each other’s habits.

A serendipitous flight

Izabella and her now husband’s first encounter happened on a plane, following a couple of unplanned events that include his lost passport and changed flight. Their love and commitment keeps on getting stronger despite the challenges of a long distance marriage, before they can finally move in together.

Featured photo credit: Unsplash via unsplash.com

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Not All Books Are Meant to Be Read. Here's How to Pick the Right Ones

As a culture, we have become reverential of books and the written word. This is a great thing. A great book can challenge us, change the way we think, or tell us fantastic stories that stick with us. This is why I write, why I chose to study literature at university.

I believe prose is the greatest story telling form we have, and poetry the greatest method of self expression.

Yet, are reverence of books is such that many of us see it as a faultless medium, that a bad book will always be superior to a great film or great video game…just because…
Well like with everything, there are a lot of bad books out there, books certainly not worth your valuable time. Especially as books, being a long form medium, can take many hours to read, far more than, a film or documentary.

It has been estimated that on average people read about 4 books a year ^[1], with the more voracious readers, going through about 12. ^[2] Both of these numbers are surprisingly small. We may only read a few hundred books in our life times. Perhaps the reason for this is that people are just too busy to spend time on books. Our lives are consumed by work and responsibilities, that it can sometimes be difficult to put the necessary time in to truly enjoy a book.

Life is too short to spend reading bad books

Spending hours of your life on books you don’t enjoy is ultimately doing yourself a disservice and wasting valuable time that you could be spending in other pursuits, or simply reading a better book.

Now, there are countless articles online suggesting good books to read, this isn’t going to be one of those. Nor is this article isn’t going to be a list of bad books, I am way too unqualified and not nearly sufficiently well read to give that advice. Books rely on personal taste, which is inherently subjective. There will be books others love that you will hate, and there will be books you hate that others will love. Both views are right and both views are wrong, such is the way with taste.

What we need then is a list of potential categories, a checklist that people should consider to help work out what book you are likely to enjoy or find interesting, and what books might only waste your time.

How to tell if a book is for you

Generally we tend to buy the best sellers, after all, if millions of people are reading and buying the same book, then they can’t be wrong surely?
Well, often when a book is a best seller it means that its marketing budget has meant it has attracted a larger readership, it is not necessarily a sign of quality, as it only shows a book as been brought, not enjoyed.

Although there are countless books in the world, covering an infinite amount of subjects. So, before you decide on buying a book, you should consider why you want to read it, and what kind of book you want to read.

For example:

Are you looking for a book that might challenge the way you think? Encourage a mental paradigm shift? Then perhaps a book on philosophy is something you’d enjoy.

Are you looking to be entertained? Then perhaps check out a thriller, or even a piece of great literature.

Do you want to know more about the life of a successful or interesting section. Then look into biographies and autobiographies.

Are you looking to expand you knowledge? Then an interesting piece of non fiction such as history is something you’d be interested in.

Once you have narrowed down and have better ascertained what kind of book you are looking for, then here is a five step guide for finding the perfect book for you.

Five things to check to find the perfect book

Pre existing interest

Let’s imagine you just walked into a bookshop, you know you are going to buy something, but you don’t know what yet.
Firstly, consider what you like already, perhaps there is some great show on and you want to read the books its based on, or read more about the subject.

For the purposes of this, lets say you really like the series Game of Thrones, but you’ve already read the books and really enjoyed them. So you go to the fiction section. If you hadn’t you’d simply buy the books they are based on.

Author

You find the author George RR Martin, the writer of the original Game of Thrones novels, and go through his works. It makes sense that if you enjoyed one book by an author, there is a good chance you’d enjoy another.

But on this bookshelf, you’ve read all the books by him.

Subject

You stop to think what you like about Game of Thrones. For you, its the medieval setting, and political intrigue. Not so much fantasy, so you head towards the historical fiction setting.

Not knowing what books are worth reading, you decide to call a friend.

Recommendation

Your friend recommends a few titles, but you remember one time they recommended a movie once which you hated, so probably your tastes are too different. Instead you go online and search for books like Game of Thrones.

You come across a novel about the English Wars of the Roses, the conflict which loosely inspired the story of Game of Thrones. It seems interesting, but you need more.

Reviews

You search online for the book and notice that all the reviews for it are really positive. Some of the things said about the book seem interesting to you. So you decide to buy it and once you start reading, you know it’s a book you will enjoy.

There are so many bad books with good premises, so its always a good idea to check out reviews. Of course, some reviews you will disagree with, but if the majority of the reviews of the book are positive then its a good indication that the book is worth reading.

Reference

[1]	^	Iris: How Many Books Does the Average Person Read?
[2]	^	Pew Research Center: A Snapshot of Reading in America in 2013

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In 1978, actor and Academy member Stephen Furst (pictured,...

In 1978, actor and Academy member Stephen Furst (pictured, right) brought us the memorable, lovable character of Flounder in National Lampoon’s Animal House. Thank you for your talent and humor. You will be missed.

The Superb Animated Artwork of Chacalall ( Chacalall Orozco )A... crss

The Superb Animated Artwork of Chacalall ( Chacalall Orozco )

A graphic designer whith mexican blood, raise in Pachuca Hidalgo, born in the big city of Mexico, all my stuff, my drawings, came from self-exploration, pure expression, and intuition.

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