HE SAID… (Commentary by Alex Wolf)
The summer before going to college is exciting. The thought about being on your own, meeting new people and of course, the parties are all thrilling, but there’s just one thing that is frightening. Leaving your girlfriend.
You don’t want to make it public because you know your friends will make fun of you, but there are many thoughts that go through your head. Will we make it? How often will we see each other? Will she meet someone new?
For someone who has been in this position before, you must do three things. First, you must have trust. In a good relationship, you must build trust. You can’t be thinking that she’ll meet someone knew, or cheat on you.
Second, you must talk daily. You don’t want to drift away from each other, so talk on the phone every other night, and text throughout the day.
Lastly, visit. Don’t be obsessive and see each other or go home every weekend, but make sure you see each other at least once every three weeks.
It’s not easy, but if you work at it, you will have no worries.
SHE SAID… (Commentary by Kari Imberg)
Anyone who has ever been in a long distance relationship can agree on one thing: it’s HARD! I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it definitely takes a lot of effort and trust to maintain it.
Long distance relationships vary across the miles and each requires different things. Perhaps you met your Mr. Wonderful while visiting a friend at a different university, or maybe your sweetheart was accepted at a university in a neighboring state.
Whatever the case, you can ease a lot of the discomfort and confusion by defining your expectations of each other and the relationship in advance.
All the late night cramming sessions and days filled of events and classes can lead to very little time for phone calls. There probably will be some times where you won’t be able to talk to each other every day. If you’re the kind of person who needs that constant companionship, perhaps a long distance relationship would be too stressful.
Trust is another issue that can arise. Both people in the relationship need to be sure that they fully trust one another. If there are trust issues early in a relationship, taking it long distance probably would only make matters worse.
