The hardest thing to prioritize in long-distance relationships is making new memories as a couple. It can be difficult to find the time simply to update each other on the phone for ten minutes, let alone come up with ways to take each other on dates from 3000 miles away. Nevertheless, my boyfriend and I have made it a goal this year to actually have long distance dates, not just phone calls, so here are four funky fresh long-distance date ideas to get you started!
Paint by Numbers
This is one of my favorite things about this school year in general. Before coming to school, I bought both my boyfriend and myself a very intricate paint by numbers for like eight dollars at Michaels. This thing is going to take like 50 hours to complete probably. Sometimes on Sundays we sit on FaceTime for six hours just painting, or sometimes in the morning I get up super early (time difference) to paint for 30 minutes with him on the phone doing the same thing. Not only is this super relaxing and stress relieving as a college student, it’s so fun and special that we can do the same exact activity with each other from so far away.
Dinner Date
This one is probably more well used by other couples, but for special occasions, we DoorDash each other surprise meals and have a dinner date. We start the FaceTime before we order the food because it’s kind of fun to go through the whole choosing process with the other one present as well, and then we painstakingly wait for our dasher to deliver while we chat and catch up. From this I’ve been gifted Din Tai Fung, DipnMix Acai bowls, flowers and chocolate and countless other meals. My love language is gift giving, and this brings a little surprise and giddiness to long-distance.
Nature Documentaries
Every long-distance couple probably already knows about Teleparty, but my boyfriend and I always find ourselves watching random nature documentaries on Teleparty. I like this more than a movie or TV show because we can still chat and not miss any major plot points, we can make funny comments to each other along the way and we both end up learning something from the documentary which is cool because we learned it together. I also end up asking 500 questions during these documentaries that he Googles from the other line.
Album Releases
We haven’t done this this year, but last year when Midnights came out, we created a Spotify session and listened to the songs for the first time at the same time. After each song, we gave it a score and shared our thoughts on it, and at the end we ranked all the songs from our favorite to our least favorite. This is a really special way to create new memories because now whenever I listen to those songs, I can think about the first time I heard them on the phone with him.
These are just four ways we connect from so far away. As we continue to the next two and a half years (holy crap) of long-distance, I anticipate learning and expanding our virtual dates in so many ways. Virtual dates give us something to look forward to beyond just in-person visits, and we have to make the most of what we have available to us.