Nurturing Long Distance Relationships

It takes commitment and some creativity to keep the romance going in a long distance relationship. With so many options with technology such as Skype, instant messaging and texting, it is now easier to stay in touch with loved ones and keep that long distance relationship going. I am currently in a long distance relationship and deployed. It has not been easy, but worth the ups and downs, trials and errors to be at a point now that distance has brought us closer than before I left. It has been a very rewarding relationship. There were frustrations at the beginning of our relationship and still occur from time to time. There are those difficult topics that still need to be discussed and sometimes can't wait until you see each other in person. To go from seeing each other for a few hours once a week and being 3½ hours away from each other thousands of miles, 8 time zones apart can make it an even bigger challenge. However, the level of commitment to making it work can make all the difference in the world than letting other things get in the way of a great partnership that is not worth losing and rare to find. I am going to share what has worked in hopes it might help someone else in the same situation.

Since we were on opposite ends of the world with a 4500 mile distance, I would call him in the morning (my time) which would be close to the time he would go to bed. He would stay up a little bit later, but we wouldn't have long to talk. Sometimes it would be for 5 minutes all the way up to half an hour. You might say that is enough time, but before deployment, we were use to talking for a couple hours a night. May I remind you that we only saw each other once a week for up to 5 hours. Depending on my work level, there were times I could talk only for 5 minutes. It would get frustrating, but he said he understood the job I had to do and was very patient and understanding with the interruptions and the all of a sudden "I have to go" if something came up suddenly. There was an internet plan available; however prices went from lowest to the best connectivity $70-$350 which was in my opinion outrageous. On top of that, there was no guarantee of a connection. To me that was not a good investment.

E-mails and phone calls were what helped to keep the long distance not be so long distance. I could have paid to use a computer and try to get on to Skype, but it was $6 for an hour on the internet and no guarantee the web came would work due to the slow connectivity adding up fast. Something we were doing before was e-mailing to each other's cell phones, but only every once and while. He travels a lot for his job and goes to college so I started sending texts to his phone. This allowed him to respond anytime. This helped us to stay connected and keep in touch throughout the day. Even better, he had unlimited text messaging. I would send him messages at night while he was sleeping so when he woke up to them in the morning with a greeting from me. He would also do the same. Every once in awhile I would mail him cards expressing my thoughts and wishes to him which he appreciated for it was always a surprise. It is the little things that get us through that keep us connected.