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Tips for Long Distance Relationships
Howdy! Let’s be honest, long distance relationships are not fun. Despite all of the modern day technology, nothing beats actually getting to be with that special person. However, as life would have it, you don’t always get to be with them in person. That’s the current situation for my boyfriend and me. During the school year we attend the same University (Texas A&M aka the greatest university ever!), but during breaks and summer, we live 5 time zones away. He lives in Honolulu, and I live in East Texas. So the past 3 months our relationship has been long distance. To make matters worse, he was at Air Force field training for a month so not much contact at all. Regardless to all of this, we are still happy, and I thought I’d share some ideas of how to keep a long distance relationship going well!
Keep in contact: With all of today’s technology, it’s so easy to still talk to one another. There is Skype, Facetime, text messaging, phone calling, and of course, old fashion letter writing! Writing letters was actually a very intimate process. During his time at field training, letters were our only source of communication. Having to write a letter daily really forced me to know exactly what I wanted to tell him and to really devote about 20 minutes each day to “talking” to him. Receiving letters were so exciting as well! Nothing made my day better than getting a letter from the postman!“Now everytime I go for the mailbox, gotta hold myself down Cause I just can´t wait till you write me you´re coming around” (Walking on Sunshine). Of course now that his is back, we try to skype at least once a week and speak on the phone about three times a week.
Skype movie dates: Skype has this awesome feature where you can share your screen with the person you are skyping. This means if you want to watch a movie on Netflix or Hulu or some other venue you can both watch it together by sharing the screen. We did this the other day and it was a blast! (well minus our skype connection kept getting lost, but there was a tropical storm going through Hawaii). We watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles. It was fun! I even made pizza on my end of the date. It was almost like having a real movie night with him!
Play Games: There are so many apps out there that you can play with a friend via the phone. This gives you a fun activity to do with you partner even if yall are thousands of miles apart. Island Boy and I play Words with Friends, and boy do we get competitive! This is such an easy thing to do to while you’re doing some other activity at your home. With the new Pokemon Go game out, we are also sharing our stats for that game and slightly competing by seeing who has the highest level.
Make Plans: Discuss future plans you want to do with that person once y’all are together again! This gives you something to look forward to, and can make the time apart pass quicker! We have a huge list going currently of things we would like to do when we both get back to A&M.
Have Something That Reminds You of Them: Having a little something that reminds you of your boyfriend/girlfriend is nice when you are feeling lonely or really missing them. I have a little Hawaiian Stitch stuffed animal Island Boy gave me after Christmas, and he has a lion stuffed animal I gave him. This is also pretty nice substitute for when you want to hug them.
Most importantly make sure you still care for that person despite the distance! I hope these tips help you if you’re in a long-distance relationship! While difficult, an LDR really isn’t as bad as it may seem!
