"We're in love, but we're not slaves to each other": this couple lives in separate homes and reveals the benefits of this life-style
As we grow up and become adults, our thoughts turn to finding a partner and "going the next step" with them. And indeed, many choose to spend the rest of their lives together by marrying someone. But there are exceptions: some people, for example, simply prefer to live together without being legally married.
But the couple in this story have a very unique way of seeing things: they love and respect each other and for this reason they choose to... live very far away from each other.
via Elpais
RDNE Stock project/Pexels - Not the actual photo
For most couples it is taken for granted that they will live under the same roof together. However, there are some who have chosen an "alternative" path.
Like Ana Llopis, 35, and Juan Carlos Gómez, 46, who have based their romantic relationship on a "sacred mantra": yes to being involved, but I stay in my house and you stay in yours.
Juan is an astrophysicist and Ana is a translator. They live about forty minutes apart and have been dating for 3 years, seeing each other only on weekends and do not intend to "go any further" than this. Their reasons?
publicdomainpictures.net - Not the actual photo
They do not want to give up their independence and firmly believe that individual freedom must be "preserved". For them, co-habitation is seen as a compromise that is simply not necessary: you can love each other even when apart and thereby not having to comply with the wishes or needs of the other.
And they're not the only ones who think like this: a 70-year-old widowed woman has found a new partner and has made the following statement: "I will no longer pick up someone else's underwear. When my husband passed away, I realized that I had been a slave all my life. Sure, there was a lot of love, but I still wasn't free," she added.
Many other couples have shared stories similar to these and the message seems to be clear: co-habitation is an inevitability and is not an obligation or a goal to be achieved. What do you think about this alternative life-style?
