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How to break up during quarantine?

cannonbeach May 17th, 2020

Hi, y'all. I am struggling with this and didn't know who to ask.

I've been with my girlfriend for ~7 months, but the past 2 of those months have been spent quarantined apart. Soon, I'm going to be traveling to spend the summer with immunocompromised family (this travel is necessary, please don't ask), so that will mean another several months apart. By the time we have a chance of seeing one another in person again, we will have spend more time apart during the relationship than we have together.

Neither of us signed up for a long-distance relationship, which is essentially what we're doing here. Long-distance only works when both people are on the same page, and we really are not--she is great, but we have opposite communication needs (she wants to talk often and gets reassurance from staying connected if she's upset; I withdraw and don't like talking much with anyone when I'm stressed, sad, etc.) I also know she'd like to try to see each other in person as restrictions start to lift, but she hasn't been able to stay socially distanced and I can't take the risk for my family.

To be clear, I don't think that anything she wants is unreasonable at all, but I know that I'm not in a place to offer it. My question is--how does one break up during a global pandemic? I know it'll have to be digital, which is bad enough, but it doesn't even feel fair to do when the world is already so awful. How can I do it in the lead hurtful way? Should I just wait?

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