Distance really does make the heart grow fonder.

Love is harder when it's long-distance, but just because it's harder doesn't mean it's not worth it. You appreciate what you work for more than what's just given.

February of 2017 was the best time of my life. I was finally over my ex-boyfriend and ready to move on. I was at the end of my senior year of high school, having a great time with my girl friends. I told myself that I wasn't going to start dating again until college, only to realize that I had completely lied to myself when I met my boyfriend.

It was a weird situation because it wasn't like we had just met. In fact, we'd gone to school together for 10 years and had classes together. We'd been on the same academic team, and I had been telling funny stories about him to my friends for a couple of years. Our school was small enough; we definitely knew each other, but we had just never talked.

We didn't run in the same circles and didn't have a whole lot in common, so when he graduated in 2016, the year before I did, I thought I would never see him again. Lucky for me, he took a year off of school and stayed in our small town. I ran into him at a basketball game where we decided to go out and the rest is history.

Our relationship was almost perfect except for one thing; there was a constant nagging in the back of my head that it would come to an end because I was already committed to Oklahoma State University, and he was committed to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. There would always be 120 miles between us. There would always be three hours between us. This terrified me! My boyfriend would always do his best to soothe my fears, but I let them drive a wedge between us.

The day we moved into our new homes in towns hours apart, I cried and cried. I just knew it was the end for my boyfriend and I, despite his attempts to make me feel better and even despite the promise ring he had given me.

My boyfriend and I about a week before we left for college, as happy as could be.

We spent the first few months fighting constantly. Even though we were seeing each other on the weekends, it wasn't good enough for me. I did something that nearly killed our relationship forever; I got my new college friends involved in the relationship. I complained to them about my feelings of being neglected and made my boyfriend out to be the bad guy. This only added to our problems.

In early October, we reached a breaking point and had a major falling out, but during that falling out we realized how much we mean to each other, and we made the compromises necessary to get through the next two years of being apart. We scheduled more video chats, set long-term goals for our relationship, and just spent quality time together.

We understand that we have to be away from one another right now to better our future, but we understand that physical distance doesn't have to dampen our relationship.

We Snapchat, text, call, Skype, play online games and see each other most weekends. We take turns making trips to one another's campuses. We listen to the other person's needs and wants. The key to our happiness, though, is something I had been withholding from the relationship: trust.

I wasn't trusting my boyfriend when he said it would work. I didn't believe he would still love me from far away. Looking back, if I would have had the trust I do know from the beginning, I could have saved us both a lot of heartache.

To the high school couple about to go to different schools, I say this:

Trust in one another. It can work. People are going to tell you otherwise, but if you put trust in your significant other and trust in the relationship itself, then you'll be just fine.

My boyfriend and I now, still happy! It just took a lot of love and a little trust.