Making the transition from high school to college can be the most terrifyingly wonderful experience in any young adult's life. You have to adjust to living in a dorm with hundreds of strangers, learn how to balance partying with studying and handle the reality that you have the freedom of a blank slate.

Adding a relationship to that already overloaded mix is essentially the equivalent of including an additional four credit course in your schedule.

So you have been dating your significant other from high school for a year or two. The both of you determine that you are going to continue your relationship into college, despite all rational logic and the obvious disapproval of your parents.

You are going to fight the distance issue resiliently, even though one of you is going to the University of Miami, and the other is going to Syracuse in New York. Sound familiar?

There is a reason “the Turkey Drop” is a term college students know all too well.This phenomenon is when a couple tries to make the long-distance thing work, but usually break up by Thanksgiving.

While there is the minority that somehow figure out what works for them and manage the separation, most of the time things tend to not work out so neatly.

Having gone through this process myself and watching dozens of my friends do the same, I've noticed that everyone seems to go through the same classic five stages of grief when reaching the inevitable demise of their high school relationship.

1. Denial

“We're different. We're not like all the other couples; we can survive this.” People like to believe that their relationship is in some way special, different or better than everyone else's. I'm sorry, but in all likelihood it's not.

So you make elaborate travel plans and a mock schedule in which you will visit one another. You discuss a phone call itinerary and promise to talk before bed each night. It's likely you know the precise number of miles you two will be apart, how long it would take to take a train, drive, fly or even walk to the other.

And then... move-in day finally arrives. Your bags are packed away in the trunk of your parent's car. You sit in the back of the car as the miles of a new and unfamiliar landscape rush by. You're listening to your mother's not-so-silent sobs coming from the front passenger seat mixed accompanied by your dad's choice of radio station you can't stand. And damn, all you can think about right now is how much you're going to miss your beau. But it's okay, it will all work out, right?

2. Anger

“Why didn't he call me last night after the party, even though he promised me he would?”

It's two weeks into school now, and your best-laid plans are already going awry. Planned phone calls are going unanswered. Every time one of you goes to a party, the other is wracked with anxiety. To top it all off, as it turns out, your parents aren't going to let you visit them for Halloweekend, after all.

Many passive aggressive texts are likely exchanged back and forth. “Oh btw, thanks so much for staying in to talk to me like you promised last night! I appreciated that!”

If you've never seen your partner's hideous, aggressive side before, buckle up because here it comes.

3. Bargaining

A couple more weeks go by, and you recognize the two of you need to make more of a structure in order to make it work.

Terms are negotiated to accommodate both of your hectic schedules. Maybe there's a time difference to work around, a varsity sports schedule or Greek organization meetings, but no matter what, this is the busiest time in both of your lives.

“Okay, I will call you at six after my chapter meeting, and we can talk until you have your chemistry lab at seven!”

Everything begins to pile up, and the possibility to stay as involved in one another's lives starts to seem like an illusion. It always sounds like you are saying to yourself and your partner “if this, then that.”

4. Depression

This is without a doubt the hardest stage to endure.

You gradually observe, as your relationship continues to deteriorate around you, that all you can do is sit back and wait for this ticking bomb to detonate.

Everything that once appealed to you begins to lose its luster, and you find yourself pushing everything to the side to sulk in your dorm for a while.

Beyond that, you always seem to be wracked with guilt over the fact that you see that cute guy at the gym or a party and briefly think, “Hmm. What could I do if I didn't have a boyfriend?”

It becomes a toxic daily rhythm to question your character and the person who you are becoming, and more times than not, you discover you're not happy with who that person is.

It's bizarre because the individual who you are so accustomed to coming to your problems with is now the source of all your misery. Now where do you turn?

5. Acceptance

Finally, one or both of you realize it just isn't worth it anymore.

The sole purpose of a relationship is to share mutual love and learn to grow as a pair. When reality hits and that stops being the case, it's simply not worth the suffering any longer.

Maybe the two of you can salvage your relationship and become friends somewhere down the road, every couple is different. While the “maybe we can still be friends” is top five on the list of all-time most nauseating clichés, it is possible.

But if one thing is for sure, it is that this decision might suck in the short-term, but it's worth the momentary hardship.

There is no denying that there will be a time after you accept that calling things off was for the best, that you will miss your lost love. It isn't rare to even question if your call was the right one.

When you truly love someone, that does not go away suddenly. Even after you recognize you aren't in love with that person anymore, there is still some remnants that will linger with you.

First semester freshman year is a time of radical transformation. The hard fact is that this adjustment is best made alone.

I learned more about myself in my first three months of college than I did in the first eighteen years of my life. That would not be achievable if I continued with the distraction and heartache that my relationship with my high school boyfriend was causing.

Making the decision to end the relationship with the guy I naively thought I was going to spend, perhaps, the rest of my life with was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. However, with four months removed from then under my belt, I don't regret my decision for a minute.

The opportunity to experience new people is only one reason to end things, possibly the most trivial. While you are in a relationship, particularly a long-distance relationship, you do not realize how much time you spend dedicated to that other person. After you break up, you have more freedom to yourself than you know what to do with.

This period is pivotal in improving yourself to become somebody you long to be. You have the chance to learn who you are as an individual, and that is an essential lesson to grasp.

In my time alone I've focused on my writing, picked up the ukelele, discovered more music than I know what to do with and built durable friendships with people I know will stand by me for a lifetime.

If I could take back the first couple months that I wasted away moping in my bed, I would do it in a heartbeat. As I sit here now and watch as my freshman year comes to a close, I've realized how fleeting college is.

You have to soak up every moment you get in these four years because, as my mom likes to point out, you will blink and it will be over. Real life will begin and the break up with your high school love will be nothing but a bittersweet memory.