Travel and Leisure

Few types of relationships are more challenging than the long-distance sort. For many reasons, some couples end up in a long-distance relationship, either on purpose or by accident. Sometimes, the people meet each other and live hundreds or thousands of miles apart, but they still manage to fall in love. Other times, people are married or dating and end up having to live in separate states due to a job transfer or other life change. No matter what the reason, having so many miles between you and the one you love can be very difficult to maintain over the long haul.

Many long-distance relationships end because the partners just can't continue living so separately. Many couples who undergo a major job transfer where one spouse doesn't move, end up in divorce court before the relationship is really over with.

It becomes very easy to live the single lifestyle when your partner just isn't there for weeks or months on end. It can be very hard to readjust when they come into town because you are so used to doing so much alone. In addition, the question of fidelity seems to always be lingering when partners don't live in the same physical area. The fact of the matter is, it's really easy to cheat when your spouse or dating partner lives in a completely different state.

One way to make a long-distance relationship easier is to come up with a set series of ground rules. In other words, how often will you talk, how open will you be about your schedule and will you be dating or seeing other people? This is going to be a question in your mind no matter what you do, so it makes sense to just go ahead and lay it out there so that you can have a conversation about it.

Another way to make the miles seem less distant is to use technology such as Skype, video chats and texting. Being able to talk in real-time while seeing your partner's face on the screen can at least make it seem like they aren't that far away.

The most important part of making a long-distance relationship work is to see each other as often as possible. That might mean cutting your budget down so you have extra spending money to travel. If you can't see each other often, it is very likely the relationship will not work out over the long-term.