My girlfriend and I have been long distance for three and a half years now. And I firmly believe that if First-Year Addison could see me now, she would be overjoyed with how far we have come.
I’ve now tried writing this article twice. I’ve bared my soul to a blank Google document and each time have come to understand more about myself and my relationship. I don’t know how much to get into because at first, long distance was hard. I was anxious to be away from my person all the time. I struggled, and I know my girlfriend knows that. Through that struggle, we never left each other’s side. I believe that it taught us how to have productive conversations and make the best out of our situation.
In high school, we never floated the idea of breaking up to go to college. We rarely ever talked about it. It was a fact that we were going to stay together when we went to college. Looking back at that now, it makes me smile to know that we were never going to give up on one another. And still, to this day, we haven’t.
I won’t lie, long distance is hard. We have our ups and downs. We have weeks where we FaceTime every night, and have others where texting is the easiest way for us to communicate. We have nights where we watch four episodes of New Girl together over Discord, and some nights where we don’t watch any at all. We make silly promises where we say we’re going to watch the entirety of a movie series, and then we don’t at all.
But there are also moments where long distance is all worth it. Like when I FaceTime her and her face fills my screen. Or when we have productive conversations about long distance and what it means to be in our relationship. And the best of all, when I get to see her during the holidays and spend weeks with her where I just appreciate her presence.
Here’s my tips (that I should look back on more often) for long distance:
- Call her whenever you can.
- Hearing her voice will uplift you more than you know.
- Don’t be afraid when she goes to do something fun at her own school.
- It’s her journey too, and let’s be honest, she’s not going to forget you that easily.
- Brag about her all the time.
- The people NEED to hear about her and all the awesome things she does!
- Plan a date night.
- Movie night and take out when? (I know you’re reading this.)
- Tell her you love her whenever you can.
- I love you.