“Distance makes the heart grow fonder.”
Bullshit. Distances causes anxiety (well, I already had anxiety, but distance doesn’t help it). Distance makes for lonely nights and worrying whether the other person got home OK. Distance leaves room for arguments that never needed to happen. Distance is not fun. Distance is not for the faint of heart. But it is worth it.
After dating my boyfriend for almost six and a half years, two of which (coming up on our third) have been spent three hours away from each other, I fancy myself somewhat of an expert at navigating the curvy road that comes with a long distance relationship.
Here are some things you should know about kissing your favorite person goodbye as classes start back up again:
1. Saying goodbye will suck no matter how good you think you’ve gotten at it.
2. You will get oddly good at sharing anything and everything over text.
3. You experience each other's lives through pictures and Snapchat.
4. Seeing couples walking around campus holding hands will make you gut-wrenchingly lonely.
5. Not to mention every couple on Instagram being happy-go-lucky as you clutch your collection of rom-coms and dream of the day you’ll be reunited with your S.O.
6. Seeing their face for the first time in months will bring all those butterflies you got when you were first dating right back and stronger than ever.
7. Nothing you do with them seems ordinary anymore. Everything becomes a cherished memory (and needs to be documented with countless pictures).
8. At every love song that comes on the radio, you will cover your ears and scream for someone to change the station because your fragile heart can’t take those feels right now.
9. You will try to describe your new friends to them and attempt to tell your friends how great your S.O. is, but nothing will do either of them justice.
10. “My favorite hello and hardest goodbye” may be cheesy but couldn’t be more accurate in a long distance relationship.
11. At every social event, you can’t help but wish they were there with you.
12. Sometimes the only solution is to throw a quick pity party for yourself.
13. Telling your friends that you are lonely is the BEST decision because they know exactly how to take your mind off your dreary existence in a long distance relationship.
14. A cute text can seem as romantic as when Noah wrote Allie a letter every day for an entire year when you haven’t seen your person in weeks.
15. You want to share everything that’s going on in your life with each other, so phone calls are excessively long and texts turn into novels.
16. Your friends will sometimes ask you to stop talking about all the fun things you did together over summer.
17. You will rearrange your entire schedule for an opportunity to see each other.
18. Suddenly you find yourself wanting to read sappy poetry and listen to Blink-182’s “I Miss You."
19. Stalking their social media is a common occurrence.
20. You learn to appreciate each other so much more. The habits that used to annoy you are now cute little quirks that you couldn’t live without seeing.
21. When you get the opportunity to FaceTime, giddy is an understatement.
22. You become irrationally angry with any couple that complains about not seeing each other for a few days.
23. You also become irrationally jealous of anyone who gets to spend more time with your S.O. than you do (aka anyone on their campus).
24. The time you do get to spend with each other seems to move faster, and time apart couldn’t pass any slower.
25. You’ll sacrifice any amount of sleep for a chance to catch up on each other's lives.
26. Your calendar is always marked with the next time you will see them, no questions asked.
27. You still wouldn’t change one single part of it.
You will be frustrated, lonely and sometimes question whether you can do it any longer. But in the end, you can’t imagine yourself doing anything other than counting down the seconds until you can be reunited, and frankly, you wouldn’t give it up for anything in the world. You won’t want to admit it, but distance really does make the heart grow fonder, and your relationship will be stronger and become more worthwhile.
To my favorite: Thank you for everything and for giving me a reason to write about long distance being worth it. I wouldn’t be anywhere without you. — K
