Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of bashing towards long-distance relationships and why people should go into college single and ready to mingle. I highly disagree with this.
I’ve been in a “long-distance relationship” for two years now. I put quotes around that because I think to every couple and every person, this can mean something different. Long-distance can be states away, or merely hours. For me, it means being two hours apart, and only really getting to see my boyfriend every few weeks.
I’ve been dating my boyfriend since freshman year of high school, and now we’re on our second year of college. I’d say our situation is peculiar, because he doesn’t get summers off or even a winter break. But we make it work. It’s definitely not the easiest thing I’ve experienced, and we probably have harder times to come.
We never even considered going to school together. Not because we didn’t want to, but because we understood that we both had our own goals. Plus, we both understood we needed time to grow on our own.
At first, I absolutely hated long-distance. The downside to long-distance is always evident. We don’t get to see each other often — and when we do we feel rushed to make up for the time we’ve missed. We’re not there for each other when we need someone to physically lean on, and sometimes seeing other couples on campus can especially bum me out.
After a while though, I began to see things in a new light. The upsides are just as plentiful. Seeing each other is so much more special now, even if all we do is watch movies all weekend. We’ve learned to make new friends and figure out who we are as individuals. Since we spent all of high school together, we never really had this opportunity. The chance to figure out who you are outside of your significant other is hard to come by. We’ve learned to be there for each other even though we can’t always physically be there. And most importantly, we’ve learned the value of honesty and friendship.
We make things work in our own way. Whether it be lunch dates over Skype, calling just to tell silly stories, or simply learning to make the most of our time together. Although I despise being so far away at times, it doesn’t mean that long-distance is horrible or never works out.
So if you’re in a long-distance relationship or you will be in the future, don’t let people scare you away from it. After all, distance means so little when someone means so much.