Paint the following picture in your head: me, fresh out of a crappy relationship, about to start a new life at college and ready to spend the rest of my summer carefree and running wild.

Then, the unthinkable happened, and I fell in love all over again. He was perfect. He hooked me by teaching me how to solve a Rubix cube, he enticed me with his ability to juggle while riding a unicycle and we enjoyed many long nights in the back of his car holding hands and conversing over the meaning of life. Of course, after everything had gone so smoothly, he dropped the bomb on me; he goes to Penn State, a school nearly two hours away from IUP.

After several conversations over the next few weeks about how committed we really were to making our very new relationship work, we decided to take the leap and go for it.

At first, admittedly, we were both absolutely terrified. Neither one of us had trod before in the deep waters of long distance relationships. It took a lot of getting used to, especially after coming to college and seeing multitudes of people get into new relationships, including my friends. However, as difficult as it is sometimes to not spend every waking second of my life with my boyfriend, there are a number of reasons why I am so incredibly grateful for my relationship, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

1. Skype has become one of my greatest friends and sometimes my worst enemy.

Although my boyfriend and I use Snapchat and text almost constantly throughout the day, our nightly Skype calls have become a staple to our means of communication. The wonderful thing about Skype is it allows us to put everything else aside and just focus on each other for an hour or two each night. We can discuss what we have learned in our classes and what we did with our friends while unwinding after finishing the day's work. Despite losing signal sometimes because of cheap college internet or dealing with Skype's occasional malfunction, we have never missed a single call.

2. Not seeing each other every single day is actually more conducive to learning!

He's a mechanical engineering major. If you don't know an engineering major, then let me tell you how much work is required to do well in that field (hint: it's a lot). He often spends five or six hours a day working on assignments, and my workload can add up too. We have both agreed that perhaps going to different schools is a good thing. It allows both of us to spend an adequate amount of time making sure our work gets done and gets done well. I have many friends in relationships with people here on campus and generally, having their significant other here can be a bit distracting. I enjoy being able to focus on my school work but still making ample time for my relationship.

3. Our time between each other, school and other friends is very well balanced.

My boyfriend is my best friend, and I have no doubt about that, but I have other friends at school, and he has his respectively. Because we can spend time with our other friends during the week, when we see each other on the weekends, our time can be 100 percent devoted to each other. I never have to fight for his attention when we're together, and every second we have is valued by the both of us.

4. Seeing my boyfriend on the weekends always gives me something to look forward to.

When I'm having a rough week, or he didn't do as well on an exam as he wanted, we always remind each other, "Friday is coming, and it will be here soon." We often plan little surprises for each other like flowers, a handwritten note or a small gift. It's the little things like those that really make Friday worth anticipating.

Don't get me wrong, it is unquestionably difficult at times to be in a long distance relationship. Our relationship isn't always sunshine and rainbows, but who's relationship is? What matters to me is that we are both dedicated to making it work out, and we have figured out how to do just that. I would say we do it pretty damn well, too. So, if you find a special someone but you're worried about a bit of distance, I'm telling you to go for it. Like I often say, if there's a will, there's a way.