Blooper Reel 2: From weirdos with love!

I always like to throw a little fun in the mix of all this lovely chaos. So this time we're talking about weirdos! See, I love SAM and I think he's very attractive but SOMETIMES he's just plain weird! Hence! some of his photos reflect that lol. So this is to all the beauties out there who love or have loved their weirdos at their best and their worst. What's your favorite odd looking couple? Do you have a weirdo you can't get enough of?!? Comment & share!

Niomi Sterling's Slidely by Slidely Slideshow

Episode 3: Our FIRST CHAT Today!!!

I JUST VIDEO CHATTED WITH SAM FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!

It's the first time since I left Durban in November that I've like seen him animated, and it was SO MUCH FUN! I just, I just can't express how sad and happy you can be about something so tiny. The picture wasn't even great but I could see him smile, and make silly facial expressions and hear him make fun of me all at once for the first time in so long. I absolutely, 100% miss that face and just everything. Absolutely everything that comes along with it. Ugh, it's so bittersweet. I only spoke to him for like 15 minutes, that's all the time we could really have. In South Africa, you have to "pay as you go" with data, and SAM is just a student. He doesn't have a job or anything yet and they don't do this widespread free wifi thing like what I get at college so... he only gets a little at a time and... every picture eats a chunk so just imagine the video stream. Sigh. 

And that's the thing.

Long distance is hard, $2000 plane tickets are hard, but even worse is that we can barely afford to communicate. Seriously, how fcked up is that? That's probably the last 15 minutes I'll have with him today and maybe even tomorrow too. Every text, every picture, every video, every sound clip, every attempt to video chat all has a pricetag on it. I'm lucky to have someone willing to go through it all even if its hard & expensive. I think I'm lucky for that. SAM even got an iphone to make it easier, which fyi and iphone is an EXPENSE in South Africa, every little feature on the iphone costs money in South Africa. Instagram?!?! forget it! You better be a millionaire to afford to use instagram the way we do here in the states. I remember my friend using up like months worth of data in one night on instagram -___- shame. 

But anyway, even though it's not perfect, it's still beautiful. I still love what we have and I wouldn't ask for anyone else. But I miss him so much, every day, I just miss him.

gofundme.com/goingthedistance

Episode 2: GoFundMe & Breaking the Law

I guess it's not hard to see, this whole endeavor is a project. I'm a private person, I hate other people being in my business and knowing the inner workings of my mind but...

Well, yesterday SAM (sfiso's nickname) asked me if I honestly thought we would ever see each other again. It wasn't the first time he'd asked and I'm sure it won't be the last but, there are only so many "see you soons" and "it will be fine"s a person can take when they're wanting something intangible. What is a relationship with someone you can't touch? Can't reach out and hold when they're sad, or cold, or lonely? I think that we didn't know what we were getting into when we decided to keep in touch. When they say distance makes the heart grow fonder they were telling the god honest truth, but I don't know if fonder means stronger.

I wonder if I will forget his face, so I save his photos.

I wonder if I will forget his voice, so I call when I can.

I wonder if he will forget me, so I ask insistently.

If you've ever been the person who just wants to make another person as happy as they make you feel, you'll know that being in two different continents makes that challenge the biggest mountain you've ever climbed... but you don't stop climbing. We can't stop trying. If I only have one life to live and I never risk it, I never put myself on the limb for a gift towards the unconventional than... what am I living for?

I will probably work a dead-end job, I will probably struggle financially, I will probably see the same neighborhoods over and over in life but I will never say that I didn't fight out of fear of the unknown. I'm giving it my all, even risking putting these thoughts out there in the open just to garner some support for this beautiful tragedy, I know! that I want to make someone happy. And the simplest thing... can I see you again one day? 

Well... yes. I can't afford it, I'm immobile, I'm stuck in between a rock and a hard place but the moment that the window of opportunity opens yes! I'm running through it. I can't wait for life to make it easy to love, but I know life has already made it worth it.

Anyway I appreciate the help if you can in any way (gofundme.com/goingthedistance), but if not I appreciate the company. Read, comment, let me know if you've been here too? Maybe distance wasn't your problem... was it something else?

Blooper Reel 1: How to be _______ in love ft. Yonce

BEY always lets us know exactly how to be _____ in love.

Check out how she's been loving on Jay-Z from the beginning! 

 And which phase are you in crazy? dangerous? or drunk honey!?

*Some might say I'm in the danger zone, but I for one think I'm still stuck at Upgrade you! ;)

Don't forget to check out my gofundme! http://www.gofundme.com/756vbs (even $1 helps!)

Episode 1: The Whole Story

I'm Niomi, and first off let me say I am NOT the girl these things happen to.

A) I don't catch feelings
B) I don't care.
C) I leave people
     &
D) I don't believe in love..


Well that is .. until recently. I guess it's just that recently I met someone who changed all that, Sfiso.

www.gofundme.com/756vbs

At the tail end of my Junior year, I spontaneously decided to study abroad, and though I wanted to go to KENYA it just so happened that the travel warnings would not allow me to do so, therefore the only deadlines still available were for South Africa. Let me just say, I had really no interest in going to South Africa because of its racial dynamics BUT I really wanted to study health in sub-Saharan Africa, so boom-boom-pow! Here I am. Fast forward a couple of weeks to living in Durban, South Africa- specifically Cato Manor.

I was living the LIFE in Cato Manor, no worries, no problems that I couldn't handle. Everything was peaches and herbs and then out of NOWHERE this young man comes strolling out from under a bridge that supposedly leads to somewhere called "Chesterville" and winds up at the same get together as me. We talk.... about how old we are....

 for two hours. 

And at the end of that two hours, he still did not know that I was 21 and not 22, MIND YOU he was also 20 turning 21 in a few months (that shows you what type of get together we were at). Anyway, he made me laugh.... and laugh..... and LAUGH! He actually was weirded out by how much I laughed but hey! that didn't stop him from speaking to me again.

Well needless to say, that relationship took off. We were here then suddenly we were there! Suddenly he was a permanent fixture in my life and suddenly we were helping each other in all the little ways people who have known each other for years do.... and then ...just as suddenly as it began, it was over.

Just like that.

4 months had flown by.

And we were saying our final goodbyes.

Sfiso surprised me when he said we couldn't let our relationship end here, in this moment. He surprised me when he told me he thought what we had was real and that he would wait for me to write him, even if it took a 21 hour delay on Facebook, or 2-3 weeks by mail. He surprised me by caring about me, something no guy has ever really done.

Well, you see that's why I couldn't let him go! I wanted to but something about him was just SO different. I couldn't help wanting to speak to him even after I'd settled back in to my New York lifestyle. No retail therapy could take my mind off of what just went missing. I never really thought that I would be the kind of girl who was sympathetic to parting ways but... I just couldn't do it this time... and I still can't.

That's why I've started this blog. To give hope to all the long distance lovers who are constantly berated with the impossibility of their relationship. As embarrassing as this is, I'm laying it all on the table to figure out who was actually right. Is love real? Can it surpass all odds? Or are we destined for doom?

Let me know what you think! And if you'd like to know the juicy details I skipped over of ME & SFISO in South Africa, comment and let me know! Expect a new post every week because something crazy is always happening in this long distance love affair.