Long Distance Relationships Can Work in College

By Maria Martinez
Blog Content Contributor

Breaking up with your significant other because you both are parting your own way to a new university, state or even country is really hard. You had a perfect relationship living in the same place, why did it have to end like this? Every year, college students have to face with this difficult decision of either having a long distance relationship (LDR) or leaving it behind.

Your friends and family are going to tell you having a LDR is impossible, that it is just a waste of your time. They are going to say you will find someone else in this new place you are moving, that it is best to just forget about him or her already. Do not listen to them. Not them, nor anyone can tell what is best for your relationship. If both parties are willing to give it a shot, then go for it. It is better to try it for yourself and see if it works for you, than to always wonder what could have happened if you had tried it.

I am not saying having a LDR is easy. Let me tell you right now, it is not easy. I was in a long distance relationship for three years and I liked it; but I also hated it because we were not together for very long periods of time. I do not regret it at all. I learned a lot about myself and my significant other as we went through this together. We had to work very hard and sacrifice many things to maintain our relationship but it was worth it.

I liked how we both had our separate lives yet we had a life together. What I mean with this is that you both are experiencing your own college life, but at the end of the day, you know you still have each other. In my case, we both had our own space but we could not live one without the other.

The cute thing about having a LDR is that you learn to love a person more because you are not seeing them every day. We had FaceTime dates every night to tell each other how our days went, any funny thing that had happened to us or just to help each other if anyone was having a problem. Communication is a key part of the success of your LDR. Do not just text all day, it is important to call each other via phone or video so you can have “real” interaction. I promise that you will feel much closer to the other person if you hear their voice or see their face.

There will be days you will feel like you cannot do it anymore. You miss your other half so much and he or she is miles away from you. Please do not give up. One day you will look back and see how much your relationship has grown. If your relationship overcomes this distance test, I can assure you that it will go through everything in the future. I tried it for myself and for many reasons, we could not maintain the relationship anymore. It was what best for us but I cannot speak for everyone else’s relationships.

If you and your significant other are facing this decision, I would tell you to be brave and just do it (thanks for the inspiration, Nike). If it works, great! If it does not, well, maybe it was not meant to be, but you at least tried it. Do not be scared, it is possible. Trust that your love for each other is stronger than everything else and one day, you will be together again.