Last year, I wrote about my long distance relationship in this article. Last week, I celebrated my year and a half anniversary with the same boyfriend I mentioned in that article. As I reflect on how much I’ve learned in the last year and a half, I realize I still struggle with the question of how to celebrate special days like anniversaries, birthdays, and holidays. My boyfriend lives thousands of miles away and currently goes to college in England, so it’s difficult to buy him gifts that don’t have incredibly high shipping fees. Here are some ideas I’ve formulated during my relationship:
Craft a love letter in an unusual medium.
You can write a conventional love letter, of course, but it can also be fun to get creative! For example, I made my boyfriend a collage of photos of us (with some cute animal pictures as filler), then wrote in the spaces between the photos what I loved about him and about our relationship. Something like a scrapbook or a short film for your significant other would be super romantic!
Watch TV or listen to some music together.
Rabb.it (the streaming service which let you watch a video at the same time and chat with each other) used to be one of the pillars of my relationship until it was taken down (rest in peace). It’s been replaced by a similar app called Kast, which constantly malfunctions and reminds us to mourn Rabbit every day, but you can try looking up other streaming services with screenshare features. We also have our own Discord server, just the two of us, where we use a Discord music bot to play music for us to listen to in sync.
Send them a care package.
Making a care package can be a lot of fun, and it’s great to feel that kind of support from so far away. They’re also super customizable. You can put pretty much anything you think your significant other would appreciate, whether it’s something useful, like snacks (nothing that will spoil, obviously), or cutesy, like a soft plushie. This is also an opportunity to write a letter to your partner, which you can then slip into the care package!
Send them things which remind you of them.
I love sending my boyfriend beautiful poems that remind me of him – one of my favorites is “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver – but I probably spend much more time sending him cute animal pictures to remind him of the fluffy pets we’ll have together. Even if it’s just a silly meme, your partner will appreciate that you were thinking of them. It’s also great collage material!
Start planning the next time you’ll see each other in person.
Because nothing says love like going out of your way — sometimes really, really far out of your way — to see someone. Obviously it’s not always financially feasible to drop everything right now and buy a plane ticket, but the ultimate goal of a long distance relationship is usually to close that distance and be together in person. When my LDR feels suffocating or hopeless, it makes me feel so much better to know there’s an endpoint to all this where I’ll eventually be able to see my boyfriend, and I won’t have to be an ocean away from him forever. If you can show your partner you really are doing as much as you can to be with them — whether it’s as big as buying that plane ticket scheduled for Christmas or as small as mailing them something to remind them of you — it’ll make both of you feel a lot better.
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