Relationships

Posts about relationships and family life, written by Kaleb Nation.

Watch Us On Good Morning America!

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Kaleb And Taylor Good Morning America Interview

Long story short, Taylor and I will be on Good Morning America this Tuesday June 23! They interviewed us as part of a feature on an awesome new Instagram account called TheWayWeMet. To hear our story, make sure you watch GMA this week!

Engagement Photos In Malibu

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I took a road trip to Malibu, California, with my fiancé Taylor, our puppy-child Selfie, and our photographer friends Jade and Kaitlin Ehlers. We spent the day taking engagement photos on Malibu’s famous beaches and came home covered in ocean water and sand.

It was all worth it though. The photos are perfect.

We filmed it all for our new show Nation — we’ve gotten a bit behind on posting episodes because we’ve been working on some secret projects but the shows will be edited and uploaded soon!

Meanwhile… here’s the crazy way I proposed in front of 13,000 people:

Wedding is in October 2015!

How To Survive A Long Distance Relationship

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Long distance relationships are tough but going back to an LDR is even tougher! When I left LA for a long business trip to the Bahamas, Taylor and I had to survive being long distance again… and realized exactly why we should NEVER do that.

Luckily, Taylor had a big surprise waiting when I got back. Watch our latest episode of NATION and tell us your long distance relationship tips in the video comments!

Did you see Episode 2? If you missed it, you can watch me propose to Taylor in front of 13,000 people at Youtube.com/Nation. Enjoy the show!

Kaleb Nation and Bfftaylor on Dr. Drew On Call

DigiProposal On Dr. Drew On Call

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Taylor and I just did our first national TV show together! Watch it below or click here to see it on CNN.

Of course our first interview was with HLN’s Dr. Drew On Call because they are my favorites and Dr. Drew is a boss. We talked about the Digifest proposal, what it was like going down on one knee in front of 12,000 people… and gave them an exclusive on the wedding date!

I know it LOOKS like I hogged all of the talking time. This was Taylor’s first TV interview since she was 13 (on The Tyra Banks Show) and I didn’t want to make her speak up too much in case she was nervous.

She was awesome though — I’m so proud of her! We have more TV stuff on the way so next time she’ll do the talking… and I’LL wear the engagement ring. 😉

Watch our Twitter accounts @KalebNation and @bfftaylor to keep up with the wedding plans, and don’t forget to watch our new reality show at YouTube.com/Nation every week!

The DigiProposal On Ryan Seacrest!

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Ryan Seacrest’s team filmed the entire Digifest event… and captured the proposal!

This is a video I’ll keep for the REST OF MY LIFE.

Here’s the original article on Ryan’s website. And you can watch my proposal video from the stage at Youtube.com/Nation.

Kaleb Nation proposes to Taylor on stage at Digifest NYC 2014

Surprise Digifest Proposal (In Front Of 12,000 People)

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I met Taylor at the YouTube convention Playlist Live. At Vidcon, she said “date me!” So at Digifest, on stage in front of 12,000 people, I said “marry me?”

I filmed everything. Watch the surprise proposal:

Both of us have been making YouTube videos for 7 years — Taylor at youtube.com/bfftaylor and me at youtube.com/kalebnation. When I started my channel, I had no idea that marrying a YouTuber was in my future.

Thanks for changing our lives, YouTube. Thanks Nationeers for watching my videos and convincing the people at Playlist Live to invite me all those years ago. Thanks Chris, Meridith, and the entire team for making my Digifest proposal possible.

And thanks to Ryan Seacrest for the awesome article about our engagement!

Be sure to subscribe to our new show — the wedding will be here soon!

Merry Christmas From Kaleb, Taylor, And Chilla!

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Merry Christmas from Kaleb Nation, bffTaylor, and Chilla!

Merry Christmas from Kaleb, Taylor & Chilla!

 

Power Showers And The Creative Trance

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I just took my first shower in 4 days.

It lasted almost two hours. I bathed, showered, washed my hair, scrubbed my skin, shaved, moisturized, deodorized, brushed my teeth, mouthwashed, brushed my teeth a second time, conditioned and fixed my hair, slipped into fresh clothes, and finished it all off with some sprays of cologne.

Doubling up with a bath and shower took the longest. I bathed before showering to loosen up days of filth.

I call it a Power Shower.

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The “before” was atrocious. Last night I didn’t go to sleep until 4 in the morning. I had my first meal at 3:45AM: mini muffins and bacon. I have little memory of the past 4 days except for what I’ve written in my notes “to catch up on after this is done” and the still-echoing clicks of my laptop’s keys.

After barely seeing me for days, my girlfriend visited my office yesterday. She couldn’t stick around because of my condition.

I didn’t even notice it’d gotten that bad. I didn’t even notice anything but my keyboard.

I call that the Creative Trance.

Writers and creatives know what I’m talking about. A new idea appears with such strength that everything around you drops five levels in importance. Your mind says you MUST explore this idea. You MUST make it happen. Nothing else could POSSIBLY be more important than the idea until the idea isn’t an idea anymore, but real and sitting in your hands, completed.

In the Trance, I don’t see the days as they pass through the window behind my desk. I don’t notice when the sun sets and the darkness falls. The glow of my computer screen hypnotizes my concentration from everything happening elsewhere.

My bottle of water is empty but I can’t mentally bring myself to take 5 seconds and grab another. I get thirsty, glance at it, see it’s empty, consider getting more, then immediately become distracted by the words on my screen and forget my thirst entirely.

Did you text me? Email me? Warn me of a deadline? I didn’t even notice.

The Trance has taken over. Writing season has begun.

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Luckily it doesn’t last forever. The Creative Trance is only that jumpstart on a new project: that jolt of energy and concentration needed to transform an idea from an intangible concept into something real, something that doesn’t just live in your head. It blocks out everything else in the world and makes regular routines seem easy to delay. You can call them back later. You can read your texts another time. You can eat and sleep tomorrow. All that matters is writing, creating, building. Making it happen.

I’m a writer — we live for the Trance. Two or three Trance weeks a year keeps me sharp with book ideas.

The week ends eventually. A two-hour Power Shower ceremony can transform a crumbled, overworked, sleepless creature into a normal human again. Then I’m back, just like before — the only remaining evidence hidden in my slightly bloodshot eyes and the new thing I just created.

It’s harder for the non-writer half of a couple to understand the Trance. When you date a writer, you date all of their characters too. When you date an entrepreneur, you date their work. They love you most, but they love their work too.

Don’t fear the Creative Trance. Give it a few days, your writer will be human again soon. Buy air freshener in bulk, it’s cheaper.

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