So a dozen days had gone since I left Manila and not a single day passed by that I did not wish I could have taken several people with me. Actually, just a single person to have taken with me would have sufficed. It would definitely make the brown edges of the grass wither away and the grass would be the greenest on this side of the planet.

I missed him and watching this Drew-Justin movie made it a lot worse because it tackled what I was fearing to face these past 12 days – a long distance relationship and how to survive such conflict. In the movie, they showed the struggle the couple went through because of the miles that separated them. Drew lived in Frisco while Justin was in New York. So I sat there thinking, “if it is tough with only 3 hours of difference in timezone, I can only imagine how it would be with an enormous 16 hour difference!”

 There were moments when I could relate so much with the characters that I had to remind myself that it was fiction and not my life, not our story. I thought I’d cry at some point but I didn’t. Perhaps because I was just too embarrassed or because deep inside me, I was confident that like the couple in the movie, we would also be happy. And though I had always known that it would never be easy or that it would never get easier, I already prepared myself for moments when I would envy happy couples walking by or for birthdays or Christmases that he would not be by my side. I guessed going the distance really would take a lot of trust, strength and love between two people – something that I did not have to guess we have.