Closing the Gap

 Hi everyone! I hope everyone's week was great :)

I'll keep my story short, as it is a LONG one. Basically, I was in a long distance relationship with someone for almost 9 months before "closing the gap." That term refers to the act of ending the distance in the relationship, and moving to be together. We actually went to the same high school, did NOT like each other (lol), lost connection for YEARS until he reached out on Instagram last September. He had since moved to Colorado and had been there for 4 years. We struck up a conversation, got to know each other all over again for the next few weeks (I was not interested, he had to try for WEEKS) and after a few visits back and forth, some long chats, and a pandemic later, we closed the gap. I flew to Colorado on June 6th 2020, and we made the drive and cruised into SoCal on June 9th, 2020. My birthday is June 10th, so we spent our first day as a couple in the same state celebrating my birthday. This whole story would not be possible if it were not for online communication. We "re-met" through social media, started talking again through social media, and eventually ended up starting a life together because of social media. If it had not been for online communication, we would have never re-found each other and would probably still be in Colorado today. I'd like to use this diagram I found about Knapp's Relationship Model to exemplify how our relationship grew:

To make a long story short, our story completely follows the "coming together" portion of the Knapp's Theory. He initiated, I gave him a chance (experimenting), decided he wasn't the same immature boy from high school and that I actually kind of liked him (intensifying), we closed the gap in our relationship (integrating), and we've been living and starting our lives together for the last 3 months (bonding). 

Sources: 

https://www.communicationtheory.org/knapps-relationship-model/