When I first met my current girlfriend, I
had just ended a pretty serious relationship after being cheated on with half
of our apartment complex. I was lonely, hurt, and fed up with dating. On a dare
and to get my friends to leave me alone about the whole mess, I created an
online dating profile, never intending on spending time on it or making a
match. You can imagine my surprise when I received an email with a message from
another user of the site, my now girlfriend of 3 years. It was short and simply
asked if I wanted to chat more and get to know each other. I was too stunned
and curious to turn her down.
And so it began. We communicated this way
for months before finally deciding to meet in person at a Starbucks in town. At
this point I was already falling head over heels for this girl. She was
intelligent, funny, beautiful, and even just the right dose of weird and
whacky. I couldn’t wait to finally see her face in person.
Upon arriving and introducing myself at the
café, we started to talk and everything came so easily, so naturally. We had
spent almost two hours sipping coffee and discussing life, our families,
friends, work, everything, before she abruptly changed the subject by asking if
I had ever known anyone who partook in a nudist lifestyle. I remember staring,
slightly dumbfounded at this drastic turn in our conversation before being able
to respond that no, I had never known anyone who lived that way. Honestly, I
had only ever known the stereotypes about “nudist colonies” and how sexually
charged they were and the simplistic lifestyle the people led.
I watched her look down at her mug, shyly.
I asked her why she had wanted to know and quietly she answered me by
explaining that she was a naturist, a person who believed in living a life close
to nature and included in that meant being publicly naked in designated places
with others who shared her views.
I can’t say that I instantly took this news
well. I had just left a relationship where half of the men in my apartment
complex had seen my ex-girlfriend naked and I hadn’t appreciated it. How could
I be okay with my new girlfriend walking around naked in front of groups of
strangers when society had always taught me this to be wrong?
I quietly listened to all that she had to
say and we parted ways amicably with her asking that before I made any
decisions to please take a deeper look into the world of naturists and what it
really meant, not the stereotypes that most people held of them. Once I
returned home, I obliged her and turned to Google for assistance.
I was shocked to find that in a true nudist community, there is nothing “sexually charged” about it. The naked
body isn’t considered a sex icon, but rather just an image of freedom and
release. The deeper I dug, the more I wanted to know. It
seemed so liberating!
I called her back the very next day. We
went out again and she told me even more about being a nudist and informed me
of all the misconceptions. A few months later, we booked a trip to a nudist
resort in the Caribbean and for the first time, I was able to fully embrace
this new and liberating way of life with my girlfriend and since then, I
couldn’t imagine going back.
We both still live our day-to-day lives
clothed. But behind closed doors and when in the company of our fellow nudist
friends, we are able to be our true selves. I couldn’t be more grateful to my
girlfriend for introducing me to this world that is so often misconceived by
our society.
I am proud to be dating a beautiful nudist
woman and to now be one myself!
