When my boyfriend, David, moved away to start his freshman year of college, I was devastated. I was going into my senior year of high school and it was hard to accept that my relationship was suddenly going to be a long-distance one because I honestly didn’t know what to expect. At first, it was a struggle. I had to adjust to not seeing my boyfriend every day in school, or getting to see him every day after school. I had to get used to not getting a text back during his school hours, even if I was texting him during mine. Sorry, to my teachers and administration who tried to enforce this rule.
In the last month we spent together, I spent a lot of time worrying that our relationship would not survive the distance. I have seen so many places on the Internet where people say that long-distance relationships will kill you, don’t work, etc. But after 2 years of being long-distance and then being reunited, I can now say that’s simply not true. I made my long-distance relationship work because I was committed to it. I had to get really creative with how I spent my free time and how I spent my time talking to David when we were 900 miles apart (and yes, I Google-mapped how far apart we were.)
We spent a lot of time texting in between taking notes and writing essays. I would text or call him when I got home from school, depending on if he was still in class. I would Facetime him at night and we would watch Orange is the New Black together. I have even proofread some of his college papers (IB & AP students are basically college students, okay) before he submitted them and he helped me study for my community college finals over Facetime during my freshman year. My mom walked in my room to find me blindfolded holding up a note card with some random sociology fact on it and she could hear David reading it from my phone. Even she was impressed by how much we wanted to make it work. There were times I would surprise him with a few “open when” letters, some of which he still has yet to open. He would call my mother and see how she was doing, and whenever I got the chance, I would go see his family and then call him on Facetime with them. Thank goodness we both had an iPod or iPhone!
Being in a long-distance relationship is hard, especially when you’re in college and still have to deal with the rest of life. There is a lot of misconceptions about long distance relationships don’t work, especially in college. It is important to remember that any relationship can fail or survive based on the mutual interests of each person, as well as the time and energy invested in it, regardless of any distance factor. That being said, I have managed to get through a long-distance relationship. My boyfriend and I have been together for almost four years, two of which were long-distance. Yes, it was hard, but it was nowhere near impossible.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “The more things change, the more they stay the same?” That’s sort of how my relationship with David is. Yeah, the distance was hard, and we had to switch up our routine, but our actual relationship and bond stayed consistent. We made long-distance work for us, and it didn’t destroy anything we have. There are of course people who still think that long-distance relationships won’t work, but that’s just not true. We have sent men to the moon, created hologram-like images of dead celebrities and a million other things that at some point seemed impossible… Do you really think that if two people are willing to invest time and energy into their relationship that they can’t make it work? I beg to differ.
Photo credit: Images: 1. Image 2 is courtesy of Jessica Tyson