This week’s campus cutie is none other than the adorable Demetria Michailides. Demetria is a senior here at SJU, double majoring in Finance and Risk Management/Insurance, with a minor in Psychology. Demetria is not only in a campus sorority, Alpha Phi, but she is also involved in the Honors Fraternity, Phi Sigma Pi, and is a representative for SJU Student Senate. If you know Demetria, you also know that she has the most coveted long distance relationship in the world. If you stalk her Facebook enough, you’ll have noticed the perfect pictures of her and her boyfriend, Brett. In a society where hooking up is in, and long distance dating is out, many of us wonder how certain relationships seem to simply work out. I was able to sit down with Demetria and discuss her relationship with her boyfriend. She gave some great insight not only for long distance relationships, but also collegiate relationships in general.
Demetria and Brett met during their junior year of high school at a mutual friend’s party. They began dating their senior year of high school, even though Demetria would be attending SJU, and Brett would be attending Clemson University in South Carolina. They decided they were going to stay together and make their relationship work. Four and a half years later, they are both about to graduate college. In other words, they made it! So just how did they manage to maintain a loving relationship, miles apart for four years of college?
Demetria stresses the importance of balancing your life. She makes sure that her and Brett speak once a day, even if it is just a quick phone call. They make an effort to keep each other informed about their week and what is going on in their lives. Demetria and Brett understand that they both have very lives, and they do not feel the need to constantly be checking up on one another. Spending time and maintaining relationships with her girlfriends is also very important for Demetria. Lastly, communication is something Demetria believes truly holds their relationship together. Communicating that she or Brett will not be able to speak due to time with friends or another activity is very important. She believes that you have to trust and believe in the other person, and be patient with them when they are busy, too. Demetria is only able to see Brett two or three times a semester, and there have been periods of three months without seeing him. This requires a lot of mutual trust and patience to make the relationship successful.
Brett also provided some great insight from a guy’s perspective about his long distance relationship. Many guys in college believe that in order to have the “real” college experience, it’s necessary to be single. Brett believes that it’s still possible to have a wonderful college experience, while having a long distance relationship. The key is allowing your boyfriend or girlfriend to have freedom by not monitoring their every move. This requires a lot of trust and patience. He also stresses that it’s important to keep the romance alive. Brett and Demetria make an equal effort to visit each other, surprise each other, and plan romantic dates. Brett believes every guy needs to “treat his girl with respect, take her out to dinners, send her flowers, and make sure you remind her how important and beautiful she is.”
Before I concluded my interview I asked both Demetria and Brett if they could make a statement describing each other and their future plans. I leave you with these two quotes of perfectness:
“Brett and I are going to backpack around Europe this summer before we start working! Â He is going to work for Amazon starting in June at a location close to home so we will finally be together again. Brett is so sweet to me and treats my like a princess, even though I don’t deserve it! Â He is my best friend and I’m so lucky to have him.”
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“Demetria is a Greek goddess. People call her an angel. She’s going to be working at Munich Re, which is only 20 minutes away from where I will be working so it’ll be nice to live back home and enjoy spending time together.”
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