In the movies, they look beautiful and heart-fluttering, filled with care packages of life-sized teddy bears and passionate late night phone calls. Although sometimes this is the case, it's definitely not the whole picture. You'll never understand the struggles of a long distance relationship until you're a part of one, and I learned that very quickly. But, if you're about to enter a long distance relationship or maybe you and your partner are thinking about it, I bestow upon you advice I wish I knew before I started mine.
I wish somebody had told me... it's significantly harder than you thought it was going to be. It's not all romantic hand-written letters and spontaneous trips to surprise each other. It is frustrating, and to be quite honest, it's downright sad sometimes. All you will see when you walk down the street are lovers holding hands and Twitter becomes a minefield of couples posing for adorable pictures. Remember that you'll get your chance to be those people. Focus on the positive, you are loved.
I wish somebody had told me... that there would be a lot of lonely nights. Times when you would just hop in your car and go visit your partner, turn into missed calls and empty voicemails. The moments when you're going to want to talk to them the most, they're going to be busy. You're going to begin to think it's your fault, and that you're the one to blame for this. It's nobody's fault. Life gets in the way sometimes.
I wish somebody had told me... that as hard as you try not to, you're going to get jealous. It's completely unavoidable to be far away from your partner for long periods of time and not get jealous, especially with social media. It's going to hurt you. The worst part is, it's not even going to be just jealousy about other girls/boys. It's just jealousy of the people who get to see them every day. You're going to see their Snapchat stories and their Instagram posts with other people and it's going to make you want to cry. Remember, just because you don't have a physical presence in their life right now, doesn't mean you don't have one at all.
I wish somebody had told me... your friends are going to be your biggest support. They're the ones that are going to be there when you feel like there's nothing you can do but stay home and binge watch Netflix. There are going to be times when you don't want to be social or go out with your friends. Go anyway. Remember that this is your life to enjoy and to live for yourself, despite how you may feel, you'll probably have a great time.
I wish somebody had told me... nostalgia will kill you. It'll take whatever happiness you could muster up and stomp on it until it's in a thousand, unrecognizable pieces. Your mind will be plagued with memories of happier times when you saw each other every day. Every song will remind you of a different memory you have together. Outfits will soon be known as "the outfit I wore when we did such and such". Let it happen. Feel every emotion, and let it fuel you to keep going.
I wish somebody had told me... you're going to learn to be okay on your own. Soon you'll be able to reassure yourself that everything is alright. You won't need to sit by your phone and wait for that reply, you're strong enough by yourself. You'll soon accept that some things are going to be hard, but that doesn't mean they're not worth it.
