I met my boyfriend, Zach, my freshman year of college. Fast forward two years and we are now engaged and planning a life together. One key part of our relationship is that for the majority of it, we’ve been long distance.
Long-distance relationships are not fun. We miss out on not only some special occasions, but also, simple, everyday life. A big part of a relationship to me is just living your life with your significant other. Doing life with them. When you live hours away from each other, it’s hard to go on dates every Friday night like you want to. Sometimes you must settle for every other week, or even every three weeks. FaceTime calls become your best friend; as does Netflix and ice cream. But let me tell you, at the end of the two, sometimes three, weeks, when I finally got to see Zach, I couldn’t be happier.
There’s this thing people tend to say, along the lines “… I wouldn’t have done it any other way.” Part of me wants to say that, but part of me wishes quite differently. If I had any choice in the matter, I would never choose a long-distance relationship. But, indirectly, being long distant brought upon a new level of appreciation for one another I hadn’t felt before. Because of our limited time together, physically, every moment I got to spend with him, I appreciated more than ever before.
There were nights when I would call him, crying, because I just missed him that much, and it made it worse knowing that I couldn’t see him. It felt like a disaster sometimes. We went through some rough patches where I felt like the distance would never close. But at the end of it all, I know now that our relationship wouldn’t be the same had we not go through it. It changed us for the better. Because we were so determined to make it work, somehow, it did. And now, two years later, we are engaged. We cut the distance in half so that I see him every single weekend. We make it work.
Zach and my long-distance relationship was the worst, and best, thing to happen to us. It felt like the world was ending in the beginning, but by the end of it all, it made us fall more in love with each other because we learned how to truly appreciate one another through our limited time spent with each other. I guess I really wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
