Long-Distance Relationships

By Veronika Cardes

Long-distance relationships are very difficult to maintain.

I know from countless experience. And, like many others… see A Long-Distance Affair...I wouldn’t recommend them! That said, we can’t always dictate what our hearts want. And sometimes we want the one that’s far away from us.

It’s not like long-distance relationships don’t have any advantages. Because, of course, they do.
When you’re not with your significant other all of the time, you have incredible freedom. You can go out when you want. Hang out with who you want. Do whatever you want at home…and no one will nag you about it.

You also have much more time to develop yourself and do all those things you want to do, but that tend to get lost when you are constantly with someone else. Perhaps one of the greatest advantages of long-distance love is that being apart can help in ways that being together can not. By this I mean that absence can truly make the heart grow fonder!

Being away from each other however can also lead the two of you to slowly grow apart.
The less contact you have with your loved one, the more likely you are to start forgetting about them (out of sight, out of mind!). The small details, especially the ones that made you fall in love in the first place, start to fade away.

Though modern technology has made long-distance love increasingly easier, nothing can compensate for the absence of the in-person human element. Your relationship can’t thrive when you are deprived of your simple physical needs such as human touch. And narrowing your time together down to a nightly phone call turns your entire relationship into virtual session that becomes more and more remote with each passing day.

To make a long-distance love successful, you’ll have to be prepared to work extremely hard. Here are a few tips:

• Be sure to see the other person as frequently as possible. If you don’t, it’s easy for passion to die. And if there’s no more passion…then ask yourself what you’re doing in the relationship anyways!

• Make sure that your daily phone sessions don’t become overly routine or feel ‘obligatory’. Try calling when you actually feel like talking to the other person. Just before you are about to pass out, exhausted at night is probably NOT the best time. If you’re not excited on your end, your partner will sense it.

• Do fun things like send gifts or even silly photos of yourself. Taking the time to send something shows the other one that they’re on your mind, and that they’re loved.

Just remember that the odds are against you. Whether you want to admit it or not, long-distance relationships tend to eventually just fizzle out.
So, anything you can do to keep things alive and fresh will help.

Wishing you luck in love,
Veronika Cardes