Thank Yous, Guest Post, and More

Hey friends! I want to say thank you for keeping this blog going strong. Each time I sign on and see so many new members I feel very grateful. Although my intercultural relationship has ended I’m happy to see the blog continues to gain in popularity and is a resource to so many others who are on their own intercultural relationship journeys. While there are many other blogs out there sharing a similar subject, I feel this one has evolved into something special because of the information, support, advice, and stories you all continue to provide for each other even in my absence. So again, thank you all!!

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Below is a reader’s recent letter to me sharing her emotions and experiences in her very new relationship with an Indian man. She kindly wanted to share her story with all of you, too. Reading her letter brought back many of my own early feelings of excitement with MIM. She’s definitely on a journey that no matter the ending will change her life forever.

Before sharing her story, I also recently received an email that I hope the writer does not mind me posting in its entirety:

Why did you and MIM break up? This is really making me curious. I have a boyfriend from Kolkatta, India and I can totally relate to everything you said. It's weird. He says he loves me and we are on the best time of our lives. But, you and MIM were too, but what happened? Why did you guys break up? I want to know so that I can prevent it from happening.

The reason I wanted to comment on these two letters in the same blog post is because it’s something we can never foresee, isn’t it? - How something can begin so good only to end well, not so good – depending how you look at it. Of course, there’s nothing I can do or say to stop a relationship from ending for anyone else. We are all on our own journeys and there’s no telling what the future may bring. The only thing we can do is enjoy while the moments last. For some the moments continue forever and for others it is only a “moment in time”. Life is messy but that’s what also makes it interesting. I always wish the best for all relationships but if it doesn’t end in marriage, babies, or happily ever afters, it doesn’t mean that the whole relationship was a sham. There’s always something new and exciting up ahead if you’re simply willing to turn the corner.

I wished MIM and I had gone the way I had planned. But now that I’ve had time to live and can look back on it with a sense of nonchalance, (It’s been exactly a year since we went kaput), I am able to feel grateful for the experience but also grateful for what I have now. In other words, and please understand I do not mean to take away from what MIM and I had at all, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. It almost seems like it was all meant to be - as if my life really is following some unseen script. So I can’t really say why it ended exactly, as, it wasn’t only one great event, but rather little things that seemed to pile up until it became more of a relief and desire to say goodbye and walk away than to continue on. I still think very fondly of MIM, btw, no matter the harsh things that were said or done during or after our break up.

Keep in mind that none of us can foresee how, if, or why our intercultural relationships may end and there’s nothing we can do to prevent it from happening. Just go with it, enjoy every moment, be thankful, and learn as much as you can.

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I met my Indian love three months ago while staying at a hotel.  He owns the hotel, and I was a guest.  He was visiting from Arizona, where he lives.  We started talking in the lobby, and it was hours later before we said goodnight.

My stay at the hotel was supposed to be for only one night, but I ended up extending my stay, as did he.  We did not get romantically involved during that week, but we did go out for dinners, lunches, shopping, walks in the park, etc.  I was not ready to enter into a relationship with him, mainly because I was only a few months out of a previous relationship.

He continued to pursue me after he went back to his life in Arizona, where he is an engineer.  After numerous phone calls and talks about his deep feelings for me, I agreed to enter into an exclusive dating relationship with him.  He immediately told friends and family that he had met the woman of his dreams.

Telling his closest friends and immediately family about me from the start makes my story somewhat different.  His parents are deceased, and he has a sister, so there lies the difference.  We have each been married before, but I have no children.  This also makes my Indian Love relationship somewhat different.  He does not practice Hinduism and was raised Sikh.  He currently has independent religious and cultural beliefs after living in America so long.  He is a philosopher by nature.

My love and I have a tremendous amount in common, many things in the areas of philosophies and hobbies.  We also feel an electric energy together and can stay up for hours without feeling tired.  We can talk business for hours too, and we have decided to purchase a hotel and run it together.  He has asked me to become his life partner, and we are to begin our journey this year after I move.  For now, we are in a long-distance relationship, both in the United States.

We have had a few excursions, to include a very romantic and exciting trip to Las Vegas.  We have sipped champagne at the bottom of the Grand Canyon together.  We have shared the highest and deepest feelings of love possible - We are in love so much is makes us ill to be apart from each other.

My Indian Love and I plan to be together this summer permanently.  We are taking a trip to India to kick things off.  He was born in Northern India and speaks Punjabi.  His family has a palace there.

That's it for now.