Five Tips to Help You Have a Successful Long-Distance Relationship

Whether you met online, at a party, at college, or on the street, you've found yourself involved in a long-distance relationship. Whether the distance is a only few hundred miles or halfway across the world, your relationship is instantly different from those couples who live in the same town or other relatively short distance from one another. This isn't a bad thing, but a long-distance relationship does pose certain difficulties (and advantages!) that close-distance relationships don't.

I met my girlfriend online in a chatroom several years ago, and after many years of friendship, we decided to step our relationship up to the next level. We've been dating for four months now, and here's some tips we've used to make sure our relationship works smoothly.

Free In-Network Calling Is A Divine Blessing
Being able to hear the voice of your significant other is key to making your relationship work. There are certain inflections and non-word noises that everyone makes when communicating verbally that are lost when communicating via e-mail or instant messaging, and these minute mannerisms are what allow us to really connect to a person and learn their moods. Unfortunately, most long-distance phone charges add up very quickly, and even cell phone minutes burn away rapidly after a few three-hour phone conversations. Thankfully, many cell-phone companies these days provide some means of free calls made to other users on the same network. My girlfriend and I use Verizon, and it really does help. I'd hate to think how much we'd be paying if we had to rely on long-distance phone line or even on normal cell-phone minutes.

Plan Visits in Advance
Depending on how long-distance your relationship is, this may be easier said than done. In my case, my girlfriend and I live about three hours apart, so we can visit fairly frequently, though with gas prices the way they are, our visits usually come only once a month or so. We almost always try to establish a date for our next visit as soon as one visit is finished. This gives us something to look forward to instead of the inevitable bittersweet parting.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!
I can't say this enough. Pictures do a lot. Most of the time, all you'll have is a voice on the end of a phone line or the words on an e-mail, so being able to put a face to the voice is really nice. If you're camera-shy, get over it, and take lots of pictures of yourself to send to your significant other. Funny pictures, sexy pictures, the works.

Surprise E-mails are Fun
This goes without saying, but e-mail is one of the easiest and best ways to communicate with your partner. My girlfriend and I frequently send each other e-mails, and it's always something of a bright experience to open my e-mail in the morning and see something from her, even if its just her saying hi.

Make Visits Count
When you do get to visit each other, make them count. Make each visit special, and try to do some fun things together. Go to a movie, play tennis, go for a walk, cook dinner together, play board games. Even if it's just sitting around and watching movies the whole visit, do things together.