#LOVEISESSENTIAL
I think nowadays nobody is surprised by great love stories that start on Tinder, right? That's because, the way two people meet doesn't matter, what really counts is the story they write from there. And what a story these two wrote! So already grab the popcorn and press play.
YOU-DUM!!!
Once upon a time there was a match on Tinder. Flávia, from Rio de Janeiro, was single after a rather long relationship and was experiencing, without much enthusiasm, the new form of flirting in the 21st century. Robin, the German, landed in the wonderful city for the perfect vacation, which obviously included meeting some Brazilians along the way…
You already know where this is going, don't you?
Match given, the first date took place two days later in a restaurant. Flávia remembers that she was shaking with nerves. I had never gone on an app date, let alone with a German. She entered the restaurant still not knowing what to expect when she saw that 1.96 tall man stand up and wave smiling at her. He was himself, no matter what, but this film was still far from having a happy ending.
Despite the pleasant meeting, dinner was sealed with a hug and a “thank you for coming”, which for a Brazilian could only mean a huge “he didn't like me”. But then came a second date, this one with a kiss, and then a third, a fourth, a fifth… They stayed together as long as possible, but vacations end, and with that, that summer love also had an end date.
But calm down that we are still in the first 15 minutes of the film. Do you still have popcorn?
It was November 2019 when Robin returned home, and as soon as he landed, he already sent a message to Flávia telling her how the flight had been. As the days went by, the messages turned into calls, the calls turned into video calls and on Christmas Eve, less than a month after the farewell, Robin had already booked another trip to Brazil.
He returned in January 2020. This time Flávia was on vacation and they spent two weeks together in Búzios in the greatest love with the right to ask for a date and everything. Even in love, Flávia knew it would be a challenge to start an intercultural and long-distance relationship, but her heart spoke louder and even before Robin returned to Germany, they already planned their next meeting. It would be in Europe, in two months.
The plot twist was once again in charge of the pandemic. A week before the trip, all borders were closed and the reunion plans had to be suspended indefinitely. How much anxiety! Worse than being far away was not having any prediction of when they would see each other again, and the longing only increased as the months passed.
At that time, only essential trips were authorized, such as trips for health reasons, some exceptional cases of business trips and the meeting of legally married couples, which was not their case.
But nothing stopped them from continuing to fight to be together. Robin, tired of waiting, created an online petition asking that international borders allow couples separated by the pandemic to meet and launched the hashtag #loveisessential to prove that love is not tourism. In a short time, the petition already had almost 50 thousand signatures, the hashtag went viral, he gave interviews and even went live with a politician from his city, exposing the stories of countless couples who were in the same situation as them.
Gradually, some countries began to ease restrictions and allow unmarried couples to meet as long as they proved a stable relationship.
In one of these flexibilities, Flávia and Robin finally met again in London, and after months apart, facing the mandatory 14-day quarantine locked in an apartment seemed like the perfect date, and it was. The day before they flew to Germany, Robin proposed to Flavia and they got married the same day they met, exactly 1 year later.
Robin says that the online petition and all the engagement on social media was the way he found to show Flávia that he couldn't live far from her anymore. In addition to them, many other couples benefited from their online petition and for several months they continued to receive messages and emails from people thanking them for the initiative.
Soon they will complete three years of marriage. Three years of much learning, patience and respect for differences, which are so many. Three years of partnership and complicity. First three years of all the next ones to come ahead. And that they are as beautiful as the story that brought them here.
The end