Let’s start by saying that you shouldn’t compare your love life with instagram videos that are made to show you an idyllic version of a couple and the love between them.
I cannot even count the many times I laughed when people assumed we never fight and think we are always as romantic as our content on instagram 24/7.
The reality?
We fight, OFTEN!
Travelling is stressful, especially when you are doing it on a budget, so that means long journeys on boats, countless layovers, long walks when necessary, general confusion, different ideas about our work, when things are not as expected, I could list you countless reasons why we loose our minds most of the time.
Add all of this to the fact that we are always together and there is no space to recharge and have some alone time or ventilate with friends over a drink!
Doesn’t seem so much fun now does it?
Now let me tell you how travelling together and being work partners changed us.
We cannot run from problems and disagreements, there is no way we can give the silent treatment to one another or just decide not to go out for the planed activities, because in the end this is our job and our passion.
What do we do?
We power through all of that, we fight, we scream we get it all out, then we gather our things and live the day as we planned it, knowing that we will be better soon.
Because experiences bind you and I dare anyone to stay angry and don’t enjoy some of the most beautiful landscapes on this planet when you have them right before your eyes.
Most of all we try to be honest and to accept that we cannot let the outside world control us emotionally, or let tiredness ruin amazing the memories we could create.
We call ourselves out when we are going into that path, so we can redirect our thoughts into more positive ones.
It’s not easy and takes time!
I remember when we started out trip..we used to fight so much more, we often wondered if we were actually strong enough to do this together. Now I realise that we were going through a major change in our lives as people and as a couple, in the end we just needed some time to aline ourselves. Slowly we started to understand what the other one needed, Selene for example needs to have some quiet time in silence at least once a day, while Jonathan needs food at the right time so he won’t feel hungry and irritable.
Travelling helped us so much to understand and appreciate each others more, in a way is like we got to know each others all over again, like we went back at when we started dating almost 8 years ago.
I can hardly believe that some of the best time we had as a couple were during the most wild, stressful and tiring adventures of our lives, like that time we took a boat from Bali to Sumba which took 36h and was filled with cockroaches making it almost impossible to sleep.
And yet we had fun and I will always remember that experience with a smile (and disgust of course because who the hell likes roaches).
There is no special trick that works for everybody, as any relationship it needs work, patience and understanding.
And of course LOVE!
