If you recently met your current significant other at college, odds are that you don't live anywhere near each other. And as you may or may not realize, winter break is approaching quickly. Although it will be nice to catch up with family and friends back home to celebrate the holidays, this situation might present you with a predicament.
You'll be forced to abruptly go from spending time with your significant other just about every day to being lucky if you see them once or twice before the start of spring semester.
My girlfriend is also my best friend, so it will be difficult for me to be so far away from her for so long. Our relationship actually began when we had about six hours between us though, so I have experience with the whole long distance thing.
In fact, even when I am at school, I still reside an hour and a half from her apartment. However, after enduring the 400 mile distance for the first seven months of our relationship, an hour and a half long drive seems like just a hop, skip, and a jump away. Calling 400 miles a hop, skip, and a jump would be a bit of a stretch.
Unless you're spending a semester abroad next semester (If you are, I recommend checking out this article), you'll only have to spend a month apart from each other. That's only about four weeks. Just make sure that you remind your significant other that you care about them each and every day, even if you don't see them face-to-face.
There are so many ways to ensure that you are communicating enough with your partner. You could send them a text or a picture, give them a phone call or a video call, send them a letter or package, or even play an online game with them (like buying these downloadable ones or playing these free ones)!
Communication is key in any relationship, even when it comes to friends and family. For your significant other in particular, it is important to share how you're feeling with them, regardless of whether they are positive or negative feelings. It is a much better idea to talk things out rather than to just bottle them up and hope that they disappear (they won't) or coping with your feelings in an unhealthy way. Nobody likes having secrets kept from them, and bottling up emotions will always do more harm than good.
Communicating emotions doesn't always have to be negative, however! You should also communicate things like when you're missing them and when looking at an old picture of them made you smile.
You could even send your significant other something silly to try to make them smile. This could be anything from sending them their favorite meme or an inside joke, to a cute cat video that you saw on Facebook.
If you can visit each other, winter break would be a great time to meet each other's families. If not, don't fret, there will be other opportunities in the future (like spring break!).
Another way to support your relationship is to give each other something sweet before you temporarily part ways. This could be a t-shirt you wear all the time, a new piece of jewelry, a handwritten letter sprayed with your perfume or cologne, or something more sentimental. That way, you'll have something to hold when you're missing them so that they don't feel so far away after all.
A month is a long time to be away from someone who means so much to you, but if you use these tips, the time will fly by.
