What People Don’t Tell You About Long Distance Relationships

Long distance relationships look so glamorous and envy worthy in movies. Almost like something that you aspire to have. Two head-over-heel in love twenty something year olds welcome long distance relationships with open arms in their fictional lives, while they stand precariously tall and on top of the world thinking that together they can conquer pretty much anything.

There are the cute sticky note messages left behind to read after the other is long gone and the dramatic goodbyes at the airport. It all sounds fairy tale like, until it’s not.

What they didn’t tell you about is the feeling of loneliness that you experience when you leave him behind as your train rolls out of the station and he’s not there beside you. What they didn’t tell you about is the physical pang of emptiness that you feel, deep inside, as your heart aches with the realization that ‘missing you’ doesn’t even begin to cover how much you miss him. What they didn’t tell you about is the countless nights where you toss and turn with only one thought running through your mind: how are you going to survive without him?

What they didn’t tell you about is how you crave his physical presence. What you would do just to have his arms wrapped around you in a warm embrace. (Picture the cravings a cocaine addict has for cocaine and you’ll know the kind of craving I’m talking about). What they didn’t tell you about was how much it would sting when you see other happy couples together, laughing and smiling and holding hands and doing all the things you wish you could be doing and experiencing with your significant other.

What they didn’t tell you about is the moments when your body collapses beneath you and you tumble to the ground, arms wrap around your legs in the hopeless fetal position but you don’t even notice as loud, uncontrollable sobs escape you while you’re left wondering if no relationship is better than this long distance one.

But what they also didn’t tell you about long distance relationships is how beautiful they can be, if you let them.

They didn’t tell you about how you learn to cherish every moment you spend with him, to memorize his laugh and the way his whole face lights up when he smiles. They didn’t tell you about how all of a sudden the small things he does for you from that text letting you know how much he cares, to that quick phone call after he gets home from work means the world to you. They didn’t tell you about how incredible it feels to know that somewhere out there, someone always has you tucked away in the back of his mind as you both go about living your separate lives.

They didn’t tell you about how his world and his happiness would come colliding into yours in the most breathtaking way possible. They didn’t tell you about that euphoric moment when he steps off the train and you feel butterflies of excitement and you don’t even care that you have the goofiest smile plastered on your face.

Because you live for those moments. The small, perfect moments that make long distance relationships worth it. That make you truly believe that there is no limit to how far love can travel.