Online love

Aww, read how 2 Nigerians found
love in the comment section of UK
Guardian
Remi Adekoya is a Nigerian writer with the UK
Guardian. In May 2013, he wrote an article titled
'Goodluck Jonathan's report card for Nigeria?
Must try harder' . A young lady named Sede
Alonge based in
Nigeria dropped a comment on the article which
spurred a back and forth conversation between
both of them on the newspaper's online
discussion forum.
About a year later, (They have since met
physically) Sede Alonge and Remi Adekoya are
engaged and planning to get married this year.
Now, how romantic is that?

Continue to read Sede's article which was
published on UK Guardian today about how she
met the love of her life on an online forum...
How my below-the-line adventure led me up the
aisle - By Sede Alonge
My interest in news and current affairs took an
unexpected and life-changing twist in the
comments section of a Comment is free piece
Looking back, following the news was a habit I
subconsciously acquired from my mother. I
remember how, in the evenings after supper, the
family would sit in the living room talking, and
before long someone would switch on the TV.
Most of us preferred to watch light entertainment
– a movie or something similar – but invariably,
my mother would plead with us to watch the
news, leading to sharp protests, frustrated groans
and ultimately the rest of us slowly filing out to
our bedrooms.
We hated having to watch the news, something
we generally believed to be drab. Perhaps, if it
had been just one episode, we would have
endured "knowing about events happening
around us", as mother would put it. But she
insisted on watching re-runs, back to back, and
on all the different available channels. We hated
the fact that our mother tirelessly watched the
news as if she was some kind of analyst. It didn't
matter to her that she often dozed off in her
armchair, midway through stories that had in all
likelihood lulled her to sleep with their boring,
repetitive drone. The most annoying part of it all
was that if anyone attempted to change the
channel, she always woke up.
So it was ironic that, years later when
newspapers began to publish their contents
online, I became something of a news lover
myself. The fascination was stirred during my
postgraduate days at university, when I would
scour the internet for articles in support of my
course work; I was usually the one with a random
news article to back up an argument, brandishing
a link or even a printed page. The internet home
page on my laptop became a news website. The
absorption continued post graduation, but I was
unaware how addicted I was to browsing news
websites until a house mate commented on the
weirdness of my habit. She had stumbled upon
my homepage, and said it was the oddest thing
she'd ever come across (unsurprising, as she
much preferred tabloid gossips and the like). She
simply couldn't get my "news fix" being the first
thing I needed whenever I switched on my laptop.
When the cyberworld shrunk even smaller and
was able to fit into our palms I transferred the
habit on to my phone, savouring news even more
frequently than before. If I had given it much
thought I would have said it was nothing more
than a time filler; something to do when a
reading distraction was needed. So when one day
I found myself reading and commenting on a Cif
article on a subject I would not have usually
found interesting, I could not have imagined the
events it would precipitate.
Before long, the author of the article and I became
engaged in a chain of discussion in the
comments section – also something totally
uncharacteristic of me. We eventually moved it
elsewhere, discovering mutual interests and a
growing attraction for each other along the way.
In retrospect, commenting on that article was the
best chance decision I'd ever made. Soon, nearly
every minute – both day and night – was spent
in endless discussions of topics, ranging from the
serious to the mundane.
Despite the fact we lived thousands of miles from
each other, we inexorably felt closer than our
physical space permitted us. And when we finally
met in person, it couldn't have felt better and
stronger. Nearly one year later we are engaged
and planning on tying the knot – and it all still
feels absolutely amazing, surreal, and increasingly
beautiful by the day. It also made me realise the
truth of the saying that we find things when we
are not looking for them. And to think I didn't
have to go through the rigours of sorting through
Guardian Soulmates (just kidding, but true) to find
my "one".
Thank you, Guardian, for bringing me my perfect
soulmate.