A few months ago I wrote an article for our college newspaper about serious college relationships. For the story, I interviewed three couples on campus who were either married or engaged. I made an interesting discovery: two of the three couples had spent the majority of their relationship living far away from each other.
I am in a long-distance relationship. My boyfriend lives about two hours away, and I usually only get to see him every other weekend. Unlike most other couples, we have to plan to see each other, considering gas prices and how the weather conditions will affect the roads. Despite this, we are very happy, and we’ve been together for over a year.
Now we are about to take “long-distance” to an extreme. My boyfriend is going on a two-year mission trip for our church to South America. We will only be allowed to write letters and emails once a week. No calls. No texts. No visiting.
I often get a lot of interesting remarks when I tell people this. Some people call it crazy. Some ask how I’m going to cope. I just tell them that I’m proud of my boyfriend and I support him, and if we really love each other, we’ll make it work.
That’s what I’ve come to realize about long-distance relationships. If two people love each other, a few hours of travel time and inconvenience is worth it. A few years of waiting are worth it. Being near by is a luxury, not a necessity.