„To me a person’s origin has never been a barrier that would prevent me from communicating or cohabitating with that person“ – recalls Nene Cherkezishvili.

“Avi and I met in a bar many years ago. He worked as a barman there and I was a frequent guest. Avi says that he became attracted to me the minute he saw me – he was charmed with my freedom and vivaciousness.

Our paths crossed two years ago, at the same bar. We started flirting and we spoke in simple Georgian – often we used online dictionaries. When we realized that we were falling in love and we wanted to have more relationship, Avi started learning Georgian, which was a very important step for us to be together.

Avi is a very comfortable, simple, conflict-free and kind person. We share similar values, which brings us closer to each other. He is very cheerful – always dances, listens to music and brings joy to my everyday life. He shares same cultural values, which entails love and respect for family, hospitality, taking care of friends. Avi is calm and I am explosive, so we balance each other. We share our tasks equally, both inside and outside our home. Together we are free, without any limitations or imposed prohibitions. Now we are expecting a child, which is a beginning of a new happy and interesting experience.

When we decided to start living together, I faced a lot of resistance from my family. Behind every argument was Avi’s nationality. Avi always tried to calm me down; he explained that he was no stranger to such experience and I shouldn’t worry about it. Back then, my 16-year-old child helped me a lot. Even though this was a surprise for him as well, we sat down and wrote down pros and cons and realized that I would be happier this way.

I felt the biggest aggression online, after the first lockdown. I am a personal trainer, so I decided to share my experience and have live workout sessions with people that are interested in living a healthy life. I could have never imagined that I would get so much stress in response. Whenever Avi appeared with me in the video, we got very painful and insulting comments. Every one of such attempts ended with me in tears. Avi continued to calm me down and told me not to pay attention to such aggressive remarks. He said that I should respond to them with love. However, this was an emotional stress for me that forced me to give up posting live videos on Facebook because I couldn’t deal with it.

Everyone who knows Avi loves him. If people allow him into their space and let him express himself, Avi will prove that he is a very good person. If two people understand each other and find what they are looking for, why should their nationality or origin matter? Everyone should respect their choice. Love is love.“