You've found that special someone, the one who makes your heart beat faster, sun shine brighter, and ultimately, you don't want to live without. Now, there's a problem: college has arrived and the schools of your choosing didn't happen to align with that of your significant other, but it's okay, because you have decided to do long distance. Speaking as someone who is enduring the same feat, believe me, it's going to be one of the hardest things you do, but it is possible. Here are 5 key steps to making those long distance relationship work:

1. Set Up a Game Plan

The title itself "long distance" can be altogether much too overwhelming. What you and your partner need is a game plan, or layout of what each others' schedules look like, and where in there you can find concrete time to set aside for each other. This doesn't mean that every Saturday night, the two of you have to decide to shut the rest of the world out, and sit at your computer screens. Perhaps your game plan is to Skype at least once a week, watch a movie or television show once a week, and then commit to at least two phone calls here and there. That way there are some things set in place for the two of you to look forward to when days get busy and the distance seems like too much.

2. Determine an End Goal

So we've decided to do long distance, then what? You and your partner should look at your goals for the near future and see if there is something you can both agree upon to share. Whether that be long distance for the school year, and this upcoming summer we go off on a trip together, or something even bigger, like after we get through undergrad, we commit to finding a graduate school together. Whatever it may be, find something to set as a sort of mile marker for the two you. Something to work toward aside from getting through the next day without seeing him/her.

3. Create a Positive and Healthy Channel of Communication

While it may seem tempting, talking 24/7 via text message, social media, etc. is only going to hurt the relationship. This sets up an unrealistic expectation for how the two of you communicate, as well as a deepened dependency on the other. So instead of being excited and surprised by the cute text that Joe just sent you about missing you when he had spaghetti for dinner last night, the world seems to crumble when it's been twenty minutes and Joe hasn't responded to your "what are you doing now" text that had also been sent two hours prior. I 100% support talking when you can; when it comes to long distance, it's all about the little things. Sending your partner a little text here and there when something funny happens, or to let them know you love them. But aside from the "good morning" and "goodnight" text/conversation, the hours in between are the time for each of you to grow as individuals. So make these expectations clear from the beginning and set healthy patterns for the way you two communicate, because tone is so very hard to convey over text, let alone when you're struggling to respond to yet another message with only 2 minutes before the start of your next class.

4. Allow the Space and Support For You and Your Partner to Be Individuals

College is the time for growth and discovery of self. For whatever set of reasons, you and your partner have decided to do so with separate paths. Ultimately, it is the job of each partner to make sure that the other feels loved and supported in venturing out and discovering this new world that they are in, and how they fit into it. Just because Joe wants to go to a party does not mean that he loves you any less, it means that you should be off socializing and expanding your horizons all the same. So long as the two of you have trust in each other and have defined the expectations of commitment to one another, it should not matter what one partner is doing in any given moment, and as beings, committed to the happiness of the other, we must work to foster the other to become the best individual they can be. Because that's what we fell in love with right? The other person, who they are, and not the relationship you're in.

5. Integrate Each Other into Your New Respective Worlds

Back home, you may not see your partner on a given Tuesday because he/she had a lot of work to get done. But that wasn't so terrifying because you could imagine them at their desk, see their home, and be familiar with the essence of that person in the environment. These are all new territories now. I know that when my boyfriend says he's going to the library, I have no connection with that, no idea what the library looks like, or how he is at the library, and the energy surrounding it. So even though I know he's at the library, my boyfriend still seems like such an abstract element in my life. This is why it is so important that at some point, sooner rather than later, each partner is able to spend some time with you in your new respective "home." Yes, the two of you will always share what home means when you're together and not away at school, but until you each can really see your partner in their new element: who they are, how the environment feels, and build some personal associations with it, you are only going to feel that much more disconnected, because you have to just imagine. Allowing each other to take part in your new world will help seal the gap and allow both of you some comfort In knowing that the person you love most is however many miles away.