Blog 8: Long Distance Relationships

For me, talking about long distance relationships hit home.  14 million couples identify as being in a long distance relationship with around 32.5% of college students being in a long distance relationship.  I personally am in a long distance relationship and found that many of the things that I learned about were very true to my relationship.  The average distance for a long distance relationship is 125 miles where as my relationship is almost doubled at 245 miles apart.  My boyfriend and I decided that we would try to make a long distance relationship work because we didn’t want to wait the two years until I came home from school.  We have always had a connection and have been best friends forever.  We first started talking seriously about being more in the start of September but the one problem that we both had with starting a relationship with each other is the distance.  I decided to go to school here at Stout and he lives in my home town.  For us, that was a huge problem so I decided going home almost every weekend to show him that I was willing to make this work and that I wasn’t interested in any other guys that went to school here.  It took until late February until we finally decided to officially date.  We decided that a long distance relationship would work because we were able to communicate every day.  With the advancement in phones and being able to text, call, facetime and snapchat, we are able to talk throughout the day and night to stay in touch. 

We also discussed individual stressors.  The stressors are initial adjustment, loneliness, guilt, commuting can get old, loss of day to day intimacy, and the stranger effect.  Jacob and I are affected by each and every one of these.  So what helps?  Strong communication is key.  It has also helped that we have a strong relationship history and base with living in the same town and being good friends since third grade.  It helps that we both support each other along with our families and friends supporting us and ensuring that we both stay busy so we aren’t missing each other so much.  By ensuring that we see each other every two to three weeks also helps to make sure that we do have that physical connection and we always know when we will see each other when we leave each other.  These factors defiantly help ensure that we keep a happy relationship.