The Silver Lining To Being In A Long Distance Relationship

It’s easy to hate on being long distance. I get it. I’ve been long distance with my guy for over a year now and it sucks. Flat out, it sucks.

When you start dating someone, you kind of expect that you’ll at least be, I don’t know, in the same state, but that isn’t always the case. Real life gets in the way and sometimes changes your plans.

But like everything in life, in order to get through a rough patch, you have to seek the good and find the silver lining. And for long distance relationships, the silver lining is pretty good- and can change your perspective on your entire relationship.

Long distance is hard. You feel like you’re dating your phone because that’s the main form of communication, you don’t always the next time you’re going to see your favorite person, and only being able to see their face (yes their actual face- not just their prof pic when you talk on Facebook) through Facetime gets old after a while.

But there’s one thing that a lot of people forget about when they’re long distance and it’s that YOU ACTUALLY SEE EACH OTHER (at least once in a while). Even if it’s super sporadic, even if it’s for a really short amount of time, you make sure to plan trips to see each other and that time is the silver lining. That time is what keeps your relationship going.

When you’re finally reunited with whoever you’re dating, no matter what you do, no matter where you are, that weekend is an adventure. One of the better things about being long distance is that you don’t get stuck in a rut by going to the same date night places or always doing the same things on the weekends together. When you are with this special person after not seeing them for however long, everything is automatically good. The food tastes better, the jokes are funnier, and you leave that weekend feeling secure about the choice you made to commit to a long distance relationship, which is hard for other couples to experience sometimes.

Appreciating that weekend, that day, just that time together in general will change how you view your “not ideal” relationship situation. When you’re having a bad day (like watching The Bachelorette and HATING that this girl gets amazing dates and you’re stuck by yourself), remember that you have amazing memories from the last time you were with your significant other. There are no bad memories in long distance relationships because you don’t have time for them- you spend your time together building your commitment and enjoying being around the other person. Appreciate that.

So here’s the silver lining: that time when you and your person are back in the same place and are reassured about the commitment you made. Being long distance is hard but when you can spend however long apart and come back to a sense of normalcy the second you see each other again, you know you’ve found a good one.