‘Love Is Not Tourism’ Isn’t Fair: Here’s Why

Several European countries have opened their borders to unmarried partners and couples that have been separated for long periods of time due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Long distance couples preached for weeks with the hashtag #loveisnottourism and #loveisessential on social media, and they were successful in reaching Europe and the EU council.

I applaud the EU council for recommending that all countries open their borders for people to be reunited with their long-distance loves, but it isn’t fair to open the borders just to people who are separated from love with another person.

What if someone is in love with a place, a dream, a career, or a new life they were planning to start in Europe?

 By this point, it’s no secret that I was supposed to move to Paris in June and start my new life. After an emotionally difficult last year of college and living at home, the only thing that got me through was knowing that I was leaving in a matter of months.

 I had a rough summer with the visa process to France. My appointment was initially scheduled for March 20th, and obviously – in the peak of the hysteria, it was cancelled. 

Appointments were opening again in early July, and I hurried to re-book an appointment – since the consulate was incompetent enough to not call or email me that appointments were re-starting. 

I had an appointment for July 10th, and then the week of my appointment, days before – I got an email saying that work visas would not be processed until further notice, but that I could still attend the appointment. 

They would only process visas if I was a returning resident with an expired visa, a student, or a spouse of an EU and/or French citizen.

I went to the appointment. Two weeks later, I got an email saying my visa had been processed. However, upon returning to the VFS global center, they merely handed me back my passport, my application, and said that there will be no processing of work visas. They said that they don’t know when they’ll be doing it, and that when they will: I have to start the entire process of booking and attending an appointment all over again.

 After much research and emailing the U.S. Embassy in Paris and the French Embassy in Washington D.C., I have come to learn that I can’t go to France until my best friend can, until my old middle school teacher can, or until the stranger sitting next to me outside Starbucks looking at his phone awaiting his over-priced, watered down American coffee can.

 I have to wait for the borders to open just like every other U.S. Citizen.

And it isn’t right.

Some people dream of marriage, kids, and falling in love – but not me. 

Even as a little girl, I never daydreamed about what my wedding would look like. At the age of 16, two of my best friends spend a while class period discussing what color the napkins at their wedding would be; I was losing my mind. All throughout high school, I wondered why I wasn’t enticed by making lots of money, having two kids behind my white picket fence, or putting a cooperate job above all… and then I went to Europe.

 And I finally saw a world filled with other people who had the same outlook on life as I do.

Like most, I have learned a lot from the pandemic. I have had the time to reflect, sit, and have a good, hard look at my life and what I want out of the rest of it. I’ve learned that I don’t need as much as I’ve dreamed of: like wild success of being a writer or owning a massive mansion in Paris.

I really only have two big dreams in this world: and one of them is to live in Europe.

 I’m not advocating for international travel right now, but I am advocating for travel to be allowed for those with a purpose. I’m not trying to go to France as a tourist: hopping from country to country in Europe possibly spreading my covid-19 germs – I’m trying to settle down there and build a life.

I’m trying to go as a preschool teacher, not a computer programmer that can be done remotely. France hasn’t closed schools, and with social distancing measure in place, don’t they need more teachers?

Doesn’t that deem my job as essential?

I have to be in Paris to continue to grow and enjoy my life the way that I want to.

Europe is one of the loves of my life.  

So, why must I be separated from it?

The last time I was in Paris was in May 2019; the most recent selfie I have of me in Paris.

‘Love is Not Tourism’ and ‘Love is Essential’ should be applying to all  kinds of love. It’s not fair that I can’t go to Europe right now just because I’m not in a relationship. A significant other is not the most predominant kind of love in this world – it’s wrong that I must sit on the sidelines like everyone else around me.

If only President Macaroon could read this and hear my story. I feel he wouldn't have a problem granting me, or any one else in a situation like this entry to France as long as we take the necessary precautions (testing before and after arrival, 14 day quarantines, etc).

I’d do just about anything, by this point.

If couples can be reunited with the person they love in Europe, I should be allowed to be reunited with the continent that I love as a whole; the place that I carry in my being with every step that I take.