I never imagined I would be in a distance relationship. It just never occurred
to me that I would meet someone outside of Omaha because I spend all my time in
Omaha. Granted, an hour (70 miles to be exact) is not that far, but when you’re
also trying to work around each other’s busy schedules, it feels like half a
world away.
Sometimes we are lucky and get to see each other twice a week, but sometimes
we have to go almost two weeks without seeing each other. Sometimes I feel fine
without him because I am too busy to dwell on his absence, but sometimes I miss
him two seconds after we depart. Sometimes it feels like we live in two
different worlds. I am here, and he is there, and the distance between us feels
infinitely farther with each passing day. Because we’re constantly traveling
back and forth, our relationship feels nomadic, as if we don’t really have a
home.
Distance is especially hard when you’re still so early in the
relationship. In the beginning, it felt like right as we started to make good
progress, we had to be apart for a while. Time has become our enemy. We never
feel like we have enough of it, and it’s always running out. Sometimes we can’t
be together for reasons completely out of our control, like bad weather (winter
is the worst). I envy people who get to see their significant other every day,
or even every other day.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, it sucks.
But through all the scheduling conflicts, late nights travelling back
and forth, and bad weather, we have somehow managed to make it work. In a lot
of ways, the distance has made us stronger. When we’re finally able to be
together, we cherish that time even more because it is so brief. We’ve been
able to get to know each other in less conventional ways. The internet has
really helped with that. We Snapchat constantly and talk in Discord whenever we
need to hear each other’s voices.
It’s really, really hard, and it’s not going to get any easier, at
least not for the next couple of years. But you know what keeps me going? The promise
that someday it will be easier. Someday I’ll get to see him every day. I’ll get
to wake up to his smiling face in the mornings and eat dinner with him every
night. We’ll get to travel the world together and go to concerts together and
never have to worry about running out of time.
So if you’re in a distance relationship, whether it’s across the state,
across the country, or around the world, know that your pain is valid, your
struggle is valid, and if you truly love them, it will always be worth it. As
Jamie Tworkowski often says, love truly is the most powerful force on the
planet.
