Part 3 - 4675 Miles Apart

Aaron:

Growing up in my family home in Southport, England. I remember the time I realised what a telephone was, and if you knew the right number you could talk to anyone. The first phone I remember was a rotary dial phone—the one where all the digits were arranged in a circle on the front of the phone. To dial each number, you put your finger in the hole next to the digit you wanted to dial, then moved your finger clockwise along with the movable plastic circle till the number was dialed. It always took me a long time to dial the number.

I used to go into a little panic as a child, when I started to dial numbers myself, because if you didn’t dial quick enough it would start to call the number and I was always afraid I would get the wrong person.

I used to love sitting on the phone stool at the bottom of the stairs in the hallway talking to family and friends. You could go no further than the cord of the phone would let you. I knew my boundaries by the pattern in the carpet, and used to walk along the border of the phone cord radius.

On a few rare occasions I would get the chance to talk on the phone with family who lived in America. I was never allowed to talk for very long, as I was told it was very expensive to call America. The thought of talking to someone outside of England, who lived thousands of miles away was amasing to me.

The family member I had spoke to was my Aunty Dawn who lived in Ohio, USA at the time. She had  married an American in 1983 and moved over to the USA soon after that. My Nan who is my Aunt's mum wanted to keep in regular contact in between yearly visits.

They used to write and send weekly letters to each other along with rare phone conversations. Because of the cost of international calls, they were not able to speak as often as they would like. They would each take turns in calling one another, but would only let the dial tone ring twice. The other would hear the two rings of the phone and this simply meant ‘I love you.’

I was now in a very similar situation, with Jed, where I wanted to be in contact on a regular basis. He had returned to his home, in the USA. I love being in contact with people and always like to know when I will see them again or at least when we will talk next.

When Jed and I parted in London, these plans were not made so I worked hard to keep up regular contact. Luckily for us we had so many different means of communication literally at our fingertips. Over the first days and weeks we started with an ongoing text conversation, talking about daily activities. This, of course, included a lot of pictures.

This was a new experience, having someone you wanted to share your normal day to day life with, who wasn’t close by. Everytime I would see something I liked, didn’t like, found funny, I would get out my phone and send a picture and message. Nearly every morning I would send Jed the view from my bedroom window, introducing him to the good olde British weather.

Jed would pop into my head all the time and how wonderful it was to be able to instantly make contact with him thousands of miles away. How different our experience would have been been back in the days of dial up internet and expensive international calls.

Jed

We got to the point after a few days in London together when it was time to swap phone numbers. I waited in anticipation as Aaron pulled out his phone from his pocket. What type of phone was it going to be? An Andriod, a blackberry even? To my relief, it was an iPhone. Two bonus points for Aaron for having the right type of phone.

A few weeks had gone by after being back home in Utah. Aaron and I had kept in close contact by text message, sharing our day to day experiences. I don’t think I have ever texted so much in my life. Aaron was always sending me pictures of the sun rising on his day, from his bedroom window. I would send him the sun setting on my day.

This definitely changed the daily routine. I would now wake up to a commentary of what Aaron had done that day while I was sleeping. I would now send him a text before I went to bed to say goodnight. In some ways I feel we had even more communication than we would have had if we lived in the same town.

Aaron

I would get flutters of excitement when the first text of the day would come through—anticipating the time Jed would wake up. We did well the first month to stay in contact. There was also a 7 hour time difference to contend with, which really did make communication harder. I would send a text goodnight just before I fell asleep. When I woke the next day I would usually have missed Jed as he would have just gone to sleep too. I always had the morning and early afternoon to myself and Jed would have his late afternoon and evening.

I was determined to make this work. There was something special about this guy and I didn’t want to lose him, just because of the distance between us. Keeping in close contact was my main priority, sharing my daily life with him through my phone.

Jed

After arriving back to Utah after my epic trip to Europe, friends and family would ask me ‘How was your trip?’ It was hard to put all that had happened in a few words. I also added to a few close friends and family that I had met someone from the UK.

I loved the time I shared with Aaron in London—it was an amazing four days. But was that just a vacation romance of fun and flirting? I still wondered how we could move forward from this point we were at now. There was an unmistakable spark and, yes, we were now in daily contact, but would that last? Would it fizzle out after a few months? Was I willing to put my heart into this with the possibility of it not working out?  Or, was I leading him on? Would our lives be compatible? Where would we live? What was his family like? It was really too early to know so I decided to relax and just let things happen.

It was a magical, fun time in the relationship. I changed my ringtone so I knew, without looking, when a text from Aaron came in. Every time I heard that special chime it made me smile.

Aaron

Before I met Jed, I had no plans to travel to the USA anytime soon. That changed on the train journey home from London. I spent that time planning and working out how and when I could make the trip to Utah. I knew that we needed more time together in the same place at the same time, to build our relationship.

After months and months of texting I finally told Jed I would love to visit him. After a few more text conversations and working out when would work for the both of us, I booked a return flight. I would be leaving in six weeks time.

Jed

I was excited that Aaron was coming to visit me in Utah and the date was set. This made it feel very real now and gave me confidence in his interest for me.

The six week countdown had begun! From this point on we started a weekly Skype date. Our first time talking in real time to each other was a bit like a first date, it didn’t flow as naturally as our text conversations and could be a little bit awkward at times. After a few hours of chatting though, it was like talking together in London again. It is such a blessing to have a way to talk to someone so far away, but it can never replace talking to someone face to face in the same location.

This was when I started to fall in love with Aaron. We had this very unique opportunity to personally get to know each other and build a deep strong foundation for our relationship.

Over this time we discovered so much, sharing very personal stories and feelings from our past. Discussing ambitions for the future, how our families meant so much to us and our core values in life. We realized we are on the same page with religion, politics and ideas that are important to us both.

To Jed, 6 Weeks to go! I didn’t think I would be back in London before coming over to Salt Lake, I am visiting some friends. Sat on the train home writing this, London will always remind me of you and the amasing 4 days we shared there! I grabbed this postcard as went to catch my train (I paid for it lol) ran passed ‘our spot’ where we waited together all those months ago. See you soon, Love Aaron :-)

Each week from the date Aaron’s flight was booked I received a postcard in the mail, counting down the weeks to his arrival. Being a person who is very much into technology and using what is available to me, this was a nice surprise to actually receive a card in the mail.  I wrote him a letter and sent it over to the UK too, even if it was digital. We certainly used every different type of communication we had available to us.

It’s a Monday here and that means I get to skype with you tonight! I took this photo in Budapest just before I met you. Chain Bridge was the bridge that united Buda and Pest, creating a wonderful friendship that they eventually became one. Can’t wait to have you come visit! 4 weeks!

Love Jed

Aaron

The day had arrived, I was on my way to Manchester Airport. I had made this journey many times before. I loved to travel and had that excitement of going to the airport and the anticipation of flying. Today felt a little different. This time I wasn’t just going on holiday, this time I was flying across the Atlantic specifically to share a whole month with Jed. All of a sudden it felt like a huge step and I started to feel a little bit nervous.

After making a connection in San Francisco, I touched down in Salt Lake City for the first time in years. I had been travelling for 21 hours and starting to look a little worse for wear. I passed the toilets on my way to arrivals, nipped in and made myself look a bit more presentable. I was minutes away from being reunited with Jed once again, face to face without a screen. Jetlag was setting in and my emotions were running high, but I was elated to finally be one escalator ride away from seeing him. As soon as I reached that bottom step, the gap would be closed between us for the next 31 days.