To anyone in a long-distance relationship,

I know. You miss your person a lot. I know because I miss mine too.

Now, when it comes to the LDR (long-distance relationship) my boyfriend and I have been together for over two years – only four months of which have been long-distance. When I say long-distance I mean that there are almost three thousand miles between us. I live in New York City and he’s living near our home in Berkeley, California.

I know that sometimes you can’t help but talk about your person constantly and it sometimes it gets on your friend’s nerves. We all do it, and here’s an apology to all of our roommates and friends who have to deal with us.

Whenever someone asks you about your partner you love it. You find yourself instantly getting nostalgic and going on a tangent of thoughts. From distinct memories to the simple feeling of their skin. You’ve subconsciously memorized them. All you want is to embrace them again, and that day will come faster than you think.

You find yourself texting them “Skype?” in passing just hoping that they aren’t busy. You’re lucky on the days you get to see their face on a screen for more than ten minutes. You had planned to have Skype dates before you were separated, but the time difference on top of all of the work you have to do has made it an impossible goal. In retrospect, we’re lucky. This could be worse; in fact it used to be worse. Before Skype and Facetime, before texting and even phone calls, all couples had were letters that would take days to reach one another.

You envy the college relationships where couples go to the same school or live in the same area. You want to cringe when people who get to see each other once or twice a month still call themselves “long-distance”, but you resist because you know at times they feel just the same as you do.

You haven’t seen your person in months. You daydream about coming home and seeing them for the first time. You’ve gotten the lecture from family members, upperclassmen, and friends that long distance never works out but you resist the pessimism, staying true to yourself and the faith you have that you and your partner are strong enough to withhold the burden of miles. People have insulted you when telling you “there are other fish in the sea” and you’ve wanted to reply with “but there are no other fish for me!” Distance makes a relationship more challenging but it’s most definitely possible, especially when you’re confident and secure with your person. The haters can’t get you down when you have plenty of other people reassuring you that, “If anyone could do it, it would be you two.”

It took a lot out of you just to make the difficult decision to make it work in the first place but the fact that you were strong enough to say, “Yes, we can do this,” should reassure you enough that you are both committed.

You took this challenge. You have been through the tears in the airports and bus stations; you will come home to each other time and time again only to share the same love for each other and pick up again right where you left off, only this time it will be more treasured and more special than ever before.