Thoughts & Things

Long Distance Relationships

I am in a long distance relationship right now. It's something I haven't really blogged about before. It isn't my first one, but it will definitely be my last. Not because it makes me unhappy, but because I have found the person I want to be with forever. I tend to not be the sort of person to dwell on my romantic feelings publicly, as those are between myself and my partner. That said, as he is visiting right now (which is incredibly exciting, as he is visiting from Northern Ireland, and it has been too long since we have seen each other), I thought I would take a moment to share some of the things that make a relationship work despite the distance.

A long distance relationship really requires full commitment by both parties to make it work. It isn't the kind of relationship you can be casual about. You have to have enough feelings for the other person to be willing to put a lot of extra time into communicating and spending time with each other. When your relationship relies on words rather than touch, there's more of an obligation to spend that time verbally communicating, and if you do it right it can bring you a lot closer in some ways.

I personally love the joys of skype. You can chat through text, voice, or video, which makes things a lot easier. You can hear each other's voices, you can see each other's faces, and you can truly feel like you're spending time together. My significant other and I like to use skype to plan out dates together. We might eat a meal together, play an online game together, or click play on something on Netflix at the same time together.

Don't take any of this as advice, necessarily. I think different things work for different people. I just wanted to share some of my thoughts on how we've managed to make it work for two years despite the distance. I truly believe the key to any relationship, romantic or otherwise, is communication.

(I have committed to blogging daily with Give It 100. This is Day Twenty-Seven. Three days of leave taken total.)