It's no secret that long distance
relationships are hard work. I mean, it's hard enough to keep a romantic liaison going when you're in the same postcode, let alone when you live on opposite sides of the globe. As such, you've got to admire people who manage to keep the flame alive, after being separated for months, and even years. Sure, we live in a time where it's easier than ever to connect to our friends and family who live in different countries, what with Skype, FaceTime and the like, but I think we can all agree that it's not quite the same as seeing your beloved face-to-face.
One couple, however, found a rather novel solution to making long distance work, and it requires
a lot of travel, and some movie-star kissing.
Meet Rob and Joli Switzer. Rob is from America, while Joli hails from the Philippines.
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Rob and Joli first crossed paths at a travellers meet-up in Cebu City, in the Philippines, back in 2010 and quickly became friends. The pair managed to stay in touch via the internet, and met up three years later. It was then that they realised that they had fallen for each other, and they decided to embark on a long-distance relationship.
Because they lived so far away from one another, they endeavoured to visit each other every few months. But instead of visiting the same two places each time, they thought it would be a better idea to make their meet-ups a little more special: by visiting a new country each time.
And when they did, they took a photo in the same pose. And it's too cute for words.
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Speaking about their trademark shot, Rob and Joli explained, "Everyone was taking jump shots and signature travel poses, so we thought about creating our own cute romantic pose just for kicks. On a whim, we decided that the 'dipkiss' should be it".
The adorable couple initially shared their photos with their family and friends, but luckily for us, they recently decided that it would be a good idea to post them online so that we can stalk them on their many adventures. And now, their Instagram page has over 5,500 followers.
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Talking about managing a long distance relationship, the loved-up duo said:
"It was one of the only ways for us to meet each other when we were apart. And we both loved to travel as a hobby anyway so it worked well for us.
"We both had full-time jobs the whole time we dated. So we saved every bit of our money and only used our paid time off to see each other".
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Now, after two years of living separate lives in different countries, and another year in different states of the US, Rob finally proposed to Joli in Moscow. They were married in June of this year.
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Rob and Joli are truly a testament to the fact that long-distance
relationships can make it to the home stretch. Certainly, they asserted, "we just love seeing couples who beat the odds and prove that stories like these are possible". And yeah, looking at them, I guess that true
love does trump all.
