How I make my long distance relationship work
How do you maintain a relationship when there’s a huge distance between you?
I’ve been in a long distance relationship for five years now, since before I even started university. So I thought I’d share some of my top tips for having a long distance relationship as a student.
1) Plan things to look forward to
Being on a student budget and being hours apart makes it difficult to see each other every weekend. What helps me get through this is planning when are we are going to see each other in advance so we’ve got something to look forward to.
My boyfriend and I booked a holiday for the middle of term one so that, even though we couldn’t see each other for a couple of weeks, we had exciting, quality time to look forward to together.
2) See and speak to each other on the phone
It’s not the same as being there with a person physically but, sometimes, it’s nice to just hear their voice or see their face. My boyfriend and I video call a lot, especially on the weeks where we won’t be seeing each other at the weekend.
We’ve been doing this since we got together in 2013, and I think it helps us go into more depth in conversation than we would in text messages.
3) Communicate and be honest
It can be hard when you’re not always with your significant other, there’s no denying that. Long distance relationships, like any other relationship, have tension and arguments from time to time. Often, this is more about the fact you’re hours away from one another than anything anybody’s done. It’s hard to know what the other person is feeling at times.
That’s why it’s important to communicate and be honest with one another, talk about things when they aren’t working, and be honest about how you feel.
4) Trust each other
All relationships are based on trust. If you’re constantly worried about what your partner is doing, chances are you’ll have an unhappy experience.
In order to make a long distance relationship work, it’s vital that you trust each other completely.
So, those are my top tips for keeping a long distance relationship going at university. You can still enjoy the university lifestyle if you’re in a relationship and, although it doesn’t work for everyone, it can be such a rewarding experience if it does work out for you.