Long distance relationships. A daunting phrase that many college students either embrace, try to embrace, or completely repel. I used to squirm away from anyone who was attempting a long distance endeavor until I met the man I am going to marry. Now I am diving head first into it, and while heading into a new year of college I feel prepared and blessed.

Before my freshman year of college, I started dating a guy about two months before school. I was attending a university in North Carolina; I lived in Tennessee and long distance was not on my radar. I broke up with him, and moved. I dated at school, all which ended and did not prosper.

However, my roommate was in a long distance relationship in which she expressed the hardship of missing her boyfriend, and the stress of the distance. But she was so in love with him she kept pushing through it all. She kept doing her schoolwork, focused really hard, and wasn’t distracted by all the boys on campus. A problem I had.

Fast forward. Summer of 2016.

I reconnected with my best friend from home. We started dating and immediately I knew this was my person. I was going to marry this man, and live a communication heavy, God-filled, sarcastic, loving relationship, with lots of ice cream, and cuddles.

And psych, everyone needs some Shawn Spencer in their lives.

With this upcoming school year, I feel mostly prepared for what is coming, and I am excited for our lives to intertwine in a different way than this summer. I am ready to love someone while distance tests our relationship. I can have the emotional support I need while in school, and not have to worry about the time consuming in-person quality time that takes away from my studies. We both want to heavily focus on school so that we may be able to support each other, buy a car, a house, and afford a wedding. We are driven by the trust that circles our relationship and the need to do well. While I love spending as much as time as possible with him we are the type of best friends that can go months without seeing each other and get back together like we never missed a beat. A quality I admire a lot about our relationship.

We are also both horrible texters, so we’ve decided on weekly FaceTime updates. A date night that this day and age has made possible.

Thank you, 21st Century.

This will give us something to look forward to in our weeks and relieve us from the constant stress of watching our phones.

Basically, besides the expected “I miss you” feelings we both plan to rock this year’s socks off, and embrace our distance not as an obstacle, but as a tool to strengthen our relationship and help us both grow as people.