Long-distance relationships. The intimidating and soul-crushing LDR. A topic frequently discussed, particularly by our demographic.

According to a study from 2016, nearly a third of all college relationships are long-distance and over 75% of engaged couples say that they were once long-distance. As a whole, 14 million couples say claim to be in a long-distance relationship, so clearly there’s nothing new about being apart from the one you love.

My current relationship has now spent more time classified as “long-distance” than it has not, so I know a thing or two about this. And yet, I still find myself googling “how to survive a LDR” and trying to learn how to make the best of this less-than-ideal situation. 

At CF specifically, we have written on the topic of coping with a LDR but a few things have changed since we last addressed the topic. So I decided it was time for an updated set of tips, along with some personal insight from my two years and counting of wishing Texas and New York weren’t so darn far apart.

Table of Contents

But first, a caveat:

My boyfriend and I have been dating for over three years now. He’s in Austin and I am in NYC. We started dating before our senior year of high school, but we’d previously dated our freshman year of high school for a few months. (It didn’t last freshman year because we were both too awkward and incompetent at fifteen to handle a relationship.) 

During our time apart, we’ve had plenty of ups and downs, due largely to the many stressors that come with college and my own personal struggles with my mental health, but ultimately I think that we have come out of every struggle stronger for it and that is why we continue despite the distance.