College relationships can seem like a fantasy. There is no limit to the amount of time you can spend together; not just because there is no one restricting that time, but because it is most likely that your significant other is just a few minutes walk away. Second semester of freshman year at the start of my relationship, I started to become very accustomed to this. After waking up and going to my classes I would typically find myself in my boyfriend’s room or him in mine. Whether we were doing homework, watching Netflix, or out with our friends. Of course we did spend a healthy amount of time doing our own separate things, but we built our relationship on funny television show marathons, night time mac and cheese, and goodnight kisses after he would walk me to my door. But suddenly all of that was taken away in an instant. The Covid-19 quarantine happened.
I left college on March 14th completely devastated and unsure of what would happen. I am still unsure of what is going to happen with our world, when I am going back to college, and when I am going to see him next. Long distance is hard, much harder than I would have expected. People always say that long distance will make you stronger as a couple, but right now I do not see that. Maybe it’s because I haven’t experienced the end result yet but I am getting more and more used to being at home, which is making everything about college feel like just a distant memory. This is probably due to the fact that I am just a first-year and I have not even been on campus for a full year yet. But now the short distance and unlimited time together has come to a halt. Not only is the distance between us great but so are the feelings I would have when being together. It is as if the memory of what it was like to hug him or hold his hand are starting to fade away. And that really terrifies me.
As of now what I am trying to do is apply the advice I have given to my friend to my own life. An old friend of mine who is going through a similar experience as me expressed worry and doubt that she would be able to maintain a long distance relationship. What I told her is that in this time of quarantine there isn’t much to do. You can’t go out and meet new people or spend more time with your friends, so maintaining this long distance relationship will just give you someone to talk everyday to when you need it. In addition, if she wants this relationship to last a long time, this long distance will be time well spent. While this struggle is painful right now, I know that if I am fortunate enough to continue the amazing experience of being together next semester it will be all worth it. Because at the end of the day, a long distance relationship is supposed to be temporary. It takes a strong person to do this, and even though I feel very weak at the moment, I am trying to gather up my strength for this because I know it will be worth it.