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The Privilege and Pain of Falling in Love Across Borders
There were no visas required when we fell in love online, but now we live in a bureaucratic nightmare
In an age of growing suspicion of one another, when policy is changing to build walls and ban travel, when nations vote to leave decades-old unions, falling in love with someone from another country seems like a foolhardy enterprise and, in all honesty, I can’t argue with that statement. But I never was all that bright.
Like a lot of modern couples, I met my wife online. We were both members of a community on the (now deceased) video app Vine (thanks again, Twitter), she a citizen of the United States and I, a citizen of a then-United Kingdom. A friend “re-Vined” a post she made into my feed where she had ingeniously looped a song by the Black Keys I liked. I looked at her profile and previous posts and was delighted to find a wealth of similar music on her account. Upon discovering one that used music by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, another favorite of mine, I decided to “make initial contact” and said in true internet hyperbole “I think we should get married.” I hadn’t seen her face and had no previous communication with her at all but, naturally, you propose to a total stranger “Because The Internet.” Luckily she took it with the good humor it was…
