Geek Couples #8 – Ingrid & Hendrik

How it all began

This is a story about us, Ingrid & Hendrik. Let me take you back to 2009, where our story began. This was a time when World of Warcraft was at a peak of it’s popularity. I, Ingrid, was in my early 20’s and suffering from depression. I had stopped going to school, quit my job, slowly lost contact with old friends and my life consisted out of sleeping and playing World of Warcraft. The only time I would go outside was to do groceries and sometimes to go out to a bar were I’d drink so much I would almost pass out. Not the best time to meet the love of your life, but somehow I did anyway. And at the moment I didn’t even know it yet!

At this low point in my life, I did meet some great people in-game. Some of them whom I still speak to on regular basis. One in particular was a young guy with a massive beard who played an annoying little female blood elf. Annoying, but funny. We loved to do some innocent gossiping, make fun of each other, and do silly things in-game. This was just a friendship, nothing more. And it continued to be like that for months, even years, up untill 2012 to be precise.

I won’t go too much into detail, but I had hit a low point that year and if I kept going the way I was going, I would’ve self destruct. I decided to move back in with my mother, and it was in my short period of moving and having no internet, that I started to text/whats app with “annoying female bloodelf”. With every message *pling* a smile would appear on my face, and my mom started to notice. “So…who is it?”, “Who is what”, “The guy you’re flirting with.”…

Meeting a kindred spirit online

I don’t know what happened, or how it happened, but suddenly talking to my good old WoW friend felt like I had only just met him. For 4 months we were on Skype non-stop. When we were at work, we would message each other. And when we’d go to bed he would call my home phone trough his Skype, and we’d talk until one of us fell asleep. The reason we could not just meet up, was because I lived in the Netherlands and he lived in Sweden.

Luckily Swedes have a long period off from work in the summer time, and we decided to meet up during that period. He would come to me for 2 weeks, and then we’d go to Sweden together for the remaining 2 weeks. We had an amazing time together, and going back home after being together for a month was painful. I missed him so much, and I knew immediately that a long distance relationship wasn’t going to work for me. He felt the same.

My Real Life Quest to Sweden!

Thus, after 3 weeks of being miserable, I decided to go back to Sweden, leaving everything in the Netherlands behind, besides my 20 kilogram suitcase filled with my belongings. They say that home is were the heart is, and my heart was with my boyfriend.

Ingrid & Hendrik…and a cat

Fast forward to now; We are still happy together, living in Sweden. We expanded the family with the sweetest cat, and we still play World of Warcraft (among other games!). I have had time to work on myself, and my boyfriend has supported me all the way. I’m so happy to have found him, and I have a videogame to thank for it!