Often when people go off to college, they are told to break up with their high school boyfriend or girlfriend. New freshmen go through many changes when they have to adjust to their new lives away from home, and these changes can be hard. Going through a major life event like this can be difficult and can sometimes cause couples to fight a lot or break up. College is a time for having new experiences and meeting new people, so why would anyone want to hold onto any baggage from high school?
My boyfriend and I haven’t been dating long distance for very long compared to the three years we dated in high school, but I can give you multiple reasons why you may want to reconsider cutting ties with your high school sweetheart.
We cherish the time we spend together so much more.
I don’t want to say that I took it for granted before, but he only lived five minutes down the road from me so it was super easy to see him. Now he lives 2.5 hours away from me and when we see each other it’s like a special occasion, so we enjoy it a lot more. We make special plans like having a nice dinner, going to a football game, or going out together. It’s fun to go on actual dates instead of just sitting around all the time like we used to do in high school.
Our communication has improved.
Since we don’t see each other in person to talk about things that are going on in our lives, we’ve had to do this over the phone. Now, we’re even more upfront about what we’re doing and who we are with just to give each other peace of mind.
We have separate lives outside of each other.
The high school that we attended was so small that we were involved in basically all of the same extracurriculars, had the same friends and even worked at the same place. Our lives were basically the same. Now, we both have friends that the other hasn’t even met. While it may seem nice to do everything with your boyfriend or girlfriend, it’s definitely important and healthy to build a life on your own too.
We have grown as a couple and as individuals.
It definitely isn’t easy being apart from each other for the first time. What makes it even harder is that nobody else from our high school went to the same colleges as us. Not only are we apart from each other, but we’re apart from all of our friends and family. I’ve made friends here and I’m super thankful for them, but it was challenging to even get to this point and I’m still not completely adjusted to my new life in college. Which brings me to my last point:
A long-distance relationship in college offers you another kind of support.
My boyfriend may not be here with me physically, but if I have a terrible day, I can call him and he’ll talk to me for as long as I need. He’s going through similar situations as me, and the fact that he isn’t here almost makes it better. It’s nice to have a person who is outside of the situation to talk to things about. He can give his point of view on certain things based on what I tell him and it’s unbiased because he isn’t here living through those things with me.
My goal in writing this article was to provide some kind of support or confirmation that long-distance relationships in college actually don’t have to be a bad thing, despite what hundreds of other sources may tell you. If you and your partner love each other and are willing to try to make it work, go for it! It can be very different, but also very rewarding as long as you both are willing to put in the necessary effort.
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Edited by Geena Anderson