Love is Greater than Distance

Long distance relationships are hard, but the reward for sticking it out is so worth it.  
Image courtesy of  sheknows.com

Going away to college can be tough for some of us students. Leaving our friends, family, pets, and jobs behind can be hard to do to attend school. But one relationship that is the toughest to handle is with a significant other. We spend all this time with this person and then we have to walk away and, for some of us, it’s for long periods of time. Sometimes though, it’s not always college that separates us from our loved one. In my case, it’s the military. 

    Before you have negative ideas in your mind, YES…long distance relationships (LDRs) can work. Like any type of relationship, it’s the people who are involved in the relationship that will make it difficult or easy. The main thing with LDRs is that the person on the other end must feel the same way that you do in order for it to work out. 

    Fortunately, in this day and age, we have technology, and that is what helps a lot of relationships. For example, I am in a long distance relationship where my significant other is deployed 7,000 miles away from me. If it weren’t for Facebook video messenger, we wouldn’t even get to speak to each other regularly. 

    There are two parts of a relationship that I think are the hardest: physically seeing each other, and silence. 

    1.    With physical contact, you get so used to it after a long time of being together each and every day. When it is taken away, you crave it like Taco Bell at 1 A.M. during finals week. Thankfully though, there is Taco Bell to heal your sadness. 

    2.    It’s easy to assume something is wrong when it isn’t. This situation is, overall, tough for me. Even though my significant other is an a completely different time zone, I sometimes forget and I freak out when he doesn’t call me or answer my messages. Then I remember he is asleep and will probably kill me for calling him in the middle of the night. Silence, unfortunately, doesn’t solve anything; communication does. If you are used to communicating every day, then keep it consistent. Don’t start to back off, but make sure that you agree on a schedule where you both still get “you” time. After all, you are a college student trying to balance an education, a social life, and a long distance relationship.  

    Some of the most important things in relationships are already known: trust, patience, communication, and commitment; but there is one thing that couples who are in LDRs tend to forget about, and that is laughter. It’s important to have fun in a relationship, whether you are always together or apart. Make sure you are laughing at least three times a day when you are communicating with one another. If you are always serious, there’s never any fun. 

    I feel that long distance relationships are the real test. When two people really are in love, then distance is just another word in the dictionary, with a rumored meaning that will not define us. Distance DOES NOT ruin people’s relationship. You don’t have to see someone every day to be in love.

    I’ll end with my two favorite quotes:  

    “Distance is not for the fearful, it’s for the bold. It’s for those who are willing to spend a lot of time alone in exchange for a little time with the one they love. It’s for those who know a good thing when they see it, even if they don’t see it nearly enough” -Meghan Daum

    “No matter where you are in the world, you will always be looking at the same moon as me.” -Nicholas Sparks