When I mention my relationship to people that have not known me long, they immediately ask how long my boyfriend and I have been dating. After telling them that we hit our fifth anniversary in October, most people are immediately shocked. Usually, they flood me with questions like, "How did you do it?" or statements like, "That's such a long time!" or “Wow you’re so young to be with someone for so long”.

I've gotten used to the surprise and comments but I have realized that at nineteen years old, being in a five year relationship is rare and, to the outsider who hasn’t found someone that “gets you," it is very difficult to comprehend. This is especially true when our schools are four hours apart and there is a two year age gap, which meant an extra two years of distance with his school being seven hours from home. Over the last five years, the one question that has always stood out to me coming from someone on the outside looking in is "How do you guys make it work?"

I never know exactly how to answer this question, as there are so many things that go into the success of our relationship. We are certainly not perfect people or a perfect couple, but our love/bond is something that I will always cherish.

The first thing that my relationship has taught me is what it is like to be in love. It is so cheesy, but it's true. My relationship has shown me that being in love doesn't just mean kisses and butterflies, even though those are two very important aspects, but that it is so much more. Being in love means that you would do anything for that person, which includes sometimes putting them and their needs before yours at times, a very selfless act that some just cannot do. It means quality over quantity, where sometimes just seeing them just for a few minutes is enough to turn a terrible day into a wonderful one. This person is always on your mind and you always find yourself thinking of things to make them happy.

Of course, just being in love is not enough to make a relationship successful. It is a huge part of it, naturally, but there are other things that need to be taken into consideration to make a long-term relationship succeed. Loving my best friend is something that I appreciate each and every day, and one of the easiest things that have come so natural to me.

The foundation of my relationship is the incredible friendship and bond that we, together have built before we began to date, or even fall for each other. The bond that we have allows us to not only enjoy the romantic aspects of our relationship, but also the goofy ones. Most of the time when we hang out, we are sitting on the couch playing Pokemon, or even Mario Kart. We’re competitive in the most supportive ways (although he does like to win and pouts when he doesn’t).

We spent this summer binging the Harry Potter movies because I had finally read the series and wanted to watch the movies. Most of our conversations aren't just exchanges of romantic words, but of sarcasm, teases and jokes. I feel so comfortable with him and I know that I can be my odd natural self without ever being judged on any part of it.

Despite how happy we are together, things are not perfect. For the majority of the year, we are four, if not seven, hours apart. Distance terrifies most people and I can easily see why. It's hard; it’s really hard, especially when you’re at your respective schools and just see couples everywhere. We had to learn things through trial and error that would make it work for us. They’re life lessons. We've relied heavily on FaceTime, as it's the closest that we can get to having an in-person conversation. We talk a lot on the phone because in terms of communication, that is second best.

Even Snapchat has become really helpful because at least we get to see each others' faces. We try and visit one another as often as possible, but it's still very hard to do so with our lives at school being so busy. When we do get lucky enough to see one another, we always make that time together as special as possible, even if it’s doing nothing. We take advantage of every chance we get and that is a huge part of making the distance work.

Our relationship, in particular, runs off of two very important things: compromise and little things. We don't always agree, which is absolutely and totally normal and okay. When we do disagree, though, we take the time to compromise. Over these last five years, I've learned that compromise is so important in not just my relationship with my boyfriend, but in all of my relationships.

We are all individuals with personal wants and needs, and we need to be aware and accepting of that. The point of compromise is to sacrifice some of your own desires in order to accommodate for those of someone else. When it's someone you care about, it's not even a sacrifice if it makes them happy. Secondly, a huge part of our relationship is the little things that we do for one another and have together.

Whether it's a surprise coffee after a long day or stopping by for a kiss on the way somewhere, little things go a long way. They don’t have to cost something to mean EVERYTHING. To me, seeing him smile “his smile” at me is priceless and I would take it over any materialistic gift. We have our traditions, our "things" together, and our inside jokes. All of those go a long way in maintaining and enhancing the incredible connection that we already have.

I want to end this by saying how thankful I am for having someone like my boyfriend in my life. Over these last five years, he has taught me so much about the world, my relationships and even about myself as a person. From him, I have learned the way that I should be treated and the way that I should treat others. I will be forever grateful for and to him for setting the bar so high, continuing to hold it there and even sometimes raising it higher. I cannot wait to see what our future holds.

While this article is about my relationship, it is written not only for me and about him and I, but for those out there who wonder if chivalry, little things and the fairytale is still even real. I can tell you it is.