How many of you are (or have been) in a long-distance relationship?
Part of what makes a fresh love so exciting is the uncertainty that comes with it. You can start to fall in love with a person as you’re getting to know the and you find yourself in a state of constant surprise. You never really know what to expect from someone and you can never really predict how you’re going to end up feeling for this person. You can go on a few casual dates and your feelings can grow organically over time. You go into things without too many expectations but as one thing leads to another, you find yourselves really falling in love with one another and things start to get really serious.
However, love isn’t really the only thing that factors into being in a relationship with someone. One important aspect of being in a relationship is closeness with your partner. And that closeness can manifest itself in an emotional as well as a physical form. And part of being physically close to another person is actually being within the same geographical vicinity of a person on a consistent basis. But unfortunately, physical closeness isn’t always going to be a luxury that all couples are going to have hence, the existence of long-distance relationships.
All relationships are unique and LDR’s are of no exception either. It’s always a different case for every couple and so no one can really say if LDR’s are good or bad. There are couples who live together and still don’t manage to stay together longer than couples who are having LDR’s. So to generalize one relationship category as being better over another would be foolish. However, just like all other kinds of relationships, LDR’s bring with them their fair share of issues and hurdles as well. And a lot of people would even agree with the idea that LDR’s are going to be substantially much more difficult to sustain than traditional relationship archetypes and there’s a serious case to be made for that argument.
It’s really different when you’re just able to call your partner up and just meet up with them in a matter of minutes. It’s really different when you need something from your partner and all you have to do is walk into the other room where they will be waiting for you. So yes, LDR’s are going to have their fair share of unique challenges that usual relationships don’t typically have to deal with. But having said that, that doesn’t mean that LDR’s are unsustainable. There are plenty of successful LDR’s out there. It’s just important that couples who are in LDR’s always practice full emotional maturity and commitment. They really need to understand just how much more difficult they have it in their relationship and how much harder they have to try to make things work.
So if you just happen to find yourself in the scary position of falling in love with someone who can’t be physically close to you for prolonged periods of time, you don’t necessarily have to fret just yet. You can survive a long-distance relationship if you want to. You and your partner just have to make sure that you maintain a realistic perspective on things. Here are 5 things that you need to know before you get into a long-distance relationship.
1. Being in different time zones will be such a hassle.
It’s not just a space issue. It’s a time issue as well. Most LDR couples will have to deal with the fact that they’re not necessarily operating in the same time zones. And as a result, it can be very difficult to schedule mutually opportune times for bonding and talking to one another. That’s why it’s important for the both of you to develop solid schedules and routines to talk to one another and try your best to stick to them.
2. You are going to have your doubts about the relationship and that’s okay.
The odds are stacked against you and so it’s perfectly normal if you’re going to have your share of doubts and insecurities. It even happens to the best and strongest relationships out there. You shouldn’t be hating yourself just because you have your doubts.
3. Trust is going to play a big role in keeping you together.
You’re not going to be around to police one another and so you’re just going to have to learn to trust each other. You are only going to drive yourselves crazy if you keep on acting paranoid about what your partner might be doing when you’re not looking.
4. You can make things work, but it’s not going to be so simple.
Just continue to have faith in yourselves and in your love. Things aren’t going to be easy, but you still have the power to make things work if you really just commit to it.
5. You need to have a plan to eventually come together at some point.
That’s the ultimate goal anyway. You can’t have a relationship that goes all the way if you will both be content with being too far away from one another. You have to come to an agreement about eventually settling in one place with one another if you really want to last.
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