We're back for another episode of The Check In, where we cast a wide net into the world and ask incredibly personal questions to our listeners, looking for your stories in the hopes of bringing us all a little closer.
Last week, we asked how your love lives are doing. We got so many responses, we’re breaking the topic into two episodes: dating and relationships.
If you have a story to share, email a voice memo to tori_bedford@wgbh.org with “The Check In” in the subject line and listen to 89.7 FM every Friday at 7 p.m.
This week we heard from Amanda Dickinson, a 58-year-old woman who has rekindled her romance with her high school boyfriend after 40 years. “I think we've both been enjoying it, but we also both sort of don't know where this is going to lead to because, you know, he's established where he is and I'm established where I am,” she said. “And who knows? This may just be a coronavirus, you know, romance, and it won't go anywhere. But then again, who knows? It might.”
While Dickinson says she’s happy to live alone and have someone to call every day, a relationship researcher from research engine True Public says he’s surveyed people in relationships, and one in 10 says they’d rather be in a toxic relationship or live with their parents than live alone during the pandemic. Heini Korhonen is living alone, and said though she gets lonely, she’s trying to remain optimistic that this will all be over soon.
Meredith Goldstein, “Love Letters” advice columnist and podcast host for The Boston Globe, says she’s single and loving it. In fact — she says she feels bad for her friends in relationships. “I'm looking at them and saying, oh, my gosh, they've been staring at their partner, the same partner for weeks, for weeks!” She said. “I'm like, what? Every little annoying thing. ... I see these couples and I'm like, how have they not run out of things to talk about?”
We also talk to some single people who have been trying to date during the pandemic: Meghan Allen, who is loathing Facetime dates — “Dating in real life is horrible, and we hate it. But imagine if you had to do a Facetime in your messy, disgusting basement apartment in New York City with some guy who has a gorgeous one-bedroom in Park Slope? People are already in your home, and you haven’t even decided if you like them yet.”
And Mills Sparkman, who is embracing Facetime dating from her Vermont apartment: “It was weird … but it also took some of the pressure away, not being in a normal date setting. And because some of the pressure was off, I could be more goofy and more light-hearted.”
And finally we hear from a man who must remain anonymous to protect his current romantic partner from humiliation — a man who is desperate to end a casual fling, but feels his normal excuses don’t apply during a pandemic, and now is forced to do what seems impossible: tell the truth.
