17 Things You Learn In A Long-Distance Relationship

1. You re-discover the art of writing letters, because there’s just something more special about seeing a letter from them in the mail than a text.

2. You start getting insanely giddy over freeway exit signs that have the name of your boyfriend/girlfriend’s city.

3. You acquire an increased dependency on that precious smart phone, because that’s where your significant other essentially lives.

4. You learn how hollow it can feel to resolve a fight over a phone rather than in person. All you want after fighting is just to hug them, and you can’t.

5. You learn an increased sense of self-reliance. Even though you can vent to them on the phone, at the end of a bad day, you only have yourself.

6. You fully understand the meaning of the word ‘heartache’ because sometimes missing them really does hurt.

7. You know your significant other’s weekly schedule extraordinarily well and plan phone time around it.

8. You get to know someone so much faster while long distance. You ask more specific questions on the phone or text because you’re deliberately trying to learn about them through limited means.

9. But on the other hand, there are aspects that take longer to learn. You don’t know what your significant other is like in traffic, or how they greet the barista making their morning coffee. You don’t know what their hair looks like in the morning; you don’t know their secret Netflix binging habits.

10. You learn how to be creative and flexible when you don’t get to spend holidays together.

11. You find ways to make someone feel special, regardless of miles.

12. You spend a lot of money on gas or plane tickets.

13. You learn everything to know about their friends before even meeting them and once you finally do meet, it’s like one big party because there’s been so much anticipation.

14. You acquire disdain for the weatherman when he announces storms affecting weekend travel.

15. You eventually start resenting how long it takes to drive to see them.

16. Over months together, you learn that the place they call home might actually be what you want to call home and end up moving.

17. You learn what a ‘real’ relationship is. That it’s not about texts or lack of them, missed phone calls, or late night FaceTiming, but it’s the bond you feel when you’re not talking. The knowledge that as you’re going about your day, someone across the state is missing you just as much as you miss them.