How to Maintain a Long Distance Relationship

 By Erica Townsend

Ever love someone so much you can’t imagine spending a day or two without or away from them, let alone months? Well I’m here to help you maintain your long distance relationship with these five simple steps.

I’ll start off with a little personal experience myself. Believe it or not I was once a young ambitious but very much in love young woman. I had been dating my then boyfriend Malachi for almost a year. We’d spent almost every day together since we met. I could be with him for hours without getting tired of him. I know that seems silly but for me that’s a big deal, as I am not the clingy type of person. I tend to get annoyed and tired of a person fast, but that wasn’t the case for me.

Crazy right?

That is until it came time for me to go off to college. Initially we didn’t pay much attention to the thought of me leaving we just focused on the “now” but the day eventually came and we were both so worried about how our relationship would be once I was away.

However, what we had working to our advantage was that my school was only an hour and forty times away, also he had a car which made it very easy for us to see each other. Well, maybe not much easier, but it did help out the situation. Nonetheless, the ever-present reality that we couldn’t see each other as much as we liked was still in our thoughts.  But to keep our relationship hot, fresh and up-to-date, we knew we had to establish some new habits if our relationship was going to last.

So here are some things/steps that I found to be very helpful when in a long distance relationship.  

Five-Step Process

• What’s your goal? I believe that with any relationship you have to establish a goal. What is your goal for this relationship? Is it something that you want for the long run or is it just something for the moment? No relationship will ever work if the two of you haven’t established what the goal for this relationship will be.

• Try to communicate daily. Once you have established what you want in this long-distance relationship you must try to communicate consistently daily. Because your partner is not in school and you are try to keep each other up to date and in tune to what you both have going on. Therefore, not only keeping the lines of communications open but also keeping the conversation fresh and exciting.

• FaceTime/Skype. Make use of new technology to benefit your relationship. It’s not only important to talk everyday but it’s also important to see each other. Talking is nice but it’s nothing like seeing the face of your beau. So make daily or weekly FaceTime/Skype chats part of your routine.

• Have a personal item from your boyfriend/girlfriend. When you're away from your love you each should have something of value from each other. Ladies love to ball up in their boyfriend’s sweatshirt or shirt, while guys might want their girlfriend’s favorite bracelet or something that’s special to her.

• Visit one another. While talking, video chatting and having an item from your love is nice nothing compares to actually seeing them.  Nothing beats having the one you love in your arms. So if ever there’s a chance for you two to see each other take it I promise you won’t regret it.

 I’ve given you some tools and steps that I believe will help you in your long distance relationship. It’s up to you to utilize these steps effectively. I found these steps to be very helpful and effective for my relationship. We are still together to this day using the same techniques while both being away from one another. So try them out and let me know how they work for you.