This Is Us
The Risks of Taking My Quarantine Romance from DM to IRL
He was more than just a fun distraction, but was it worth the leap?
A thing they don’t tell you about starting a relationship — of any caliber — in quarantine is that there is absolutely nowhere to put your feelings. They stay contained, like yourself, in a 500-square-foot studio apartment, until you reach a breaking point and decide it’s worth the risk to set them free. And putting your heart on the line during a pandemic? Well, that’s like taking a thousand risks at once. You ought to be prepared to protect all the vulnerable parts.
I met J in the most iconic of destinations: my Instagram DMs. I knew he existed long before he took the leap, however, because he’d been following me for years on Twitter, after reading a few of my McSweeney’s pieces. He was the best kind of follower — a “fan” who didn’t push boundaries, one who just quietly liked the wild, witty, weird words I posted on the internet, and nothing more.
Until, of course, he finally decided to say hello.
For most of my online life, I have openly shared anecdotes from my dating experiences — particularly on platforms with limited character counts (and in longer form, when merited). But being single during quarantine was an…
