If you're in a long distance college relationship, this article is for you.

The first week of August is coming to a close.

All of your high school friends have donned their uniforms and begun begrudgingly walking through hallways. Some of your college friends have already made the trek back to dorm rooms and green campuses. Beach vacations end, back to school sales interrupt your normal Target shopping and cars become packed with bedding and other "checklist" items.

That's right: it's back to college.

For most people, this is purely positive news: no more nagging parents! No more "as long as you live under my roof!"

But for you, it means a very important goodbye.

Tears. Empty stomachs. Saline stained napkins and Kleenex. A sad first night in a dorm room alone.

But what do you need advice for? You have phones, text, FaceTime and Skype!

Photo from PandaWhale

“With such great advances in technology, communication with loved ones is at a peak in closing gaps between physical distance”

Fortunately, Apple and Skype have invented incredible tools to be able to feel like you're not losing the face to face conversation you have with your SO in reality.

Unfortunately, there is still an ocean between technological and in-person interaction. Many times people have become so in tune with digital interaction that, in the example of a couple meeting for the first time in person, interactions have become so crutched on the impersonal style of computer-mediated communication; human interaction seems awkward, uncomfortable and not normal.

My girlfriend and I hadn’t seen each other in 53 days, or around two months.

With the adaptation of this FaceTime world, obviously Caitlin and I grew accustomed to seeing each other through the 4-inch screens of our iPhones. It’s truly a remarkable gift. But I never realized quite how impossible it is for technology to replace the gift of being in someone’s company. There is still something special with flying hundreds of miles to reunite in an airport that the ease of networking cannot replace. A cheesy moment if you will, but one I will always remember, with the lack of digital proof or not. The image on the top didn’t capture internal emotions, tears, the amount of heartfelt joy or an internal need to rush to each other.

Don't get me wrong, I will never be grateful enough for the connection that these things have given me for maintaining my relationship.

Just don't ever mistake them for the connection you can have when truly seeing seeing someone face to face, hand to hand, heart to heart.

Yes, we live in a world of convenience. But it is dangerous to ever consider it a “replacement.”