As you should all know, I am currently dating a fantastic guy named Jared (shout out to him, hey). I am one of the only one of my friends to be in a relationship at all, but mine happens to be long distance. Now when I say long distance, I'm not talking across the world or even across the country, but roughly 200 miles. This may not sound crazy, but seeing as how my boyfriend and I are so used to being about a mile away from each other during the school year, it really toughens up the situation. And I'm not just talking physical distance; emotionally, we are tethered together and so the string begins to be put under pressure when we are so far.

I think the most difficult part about the situation is that I'm so used to knowing what he is doing at every minute of the day, usually because I'm right there with him when he is doing it. We've done so many things together, like singing and going to the city to see a bunch of different Broadway shows, but mostly hanging out at either one of our houses just being there with each other and enjoying one another's company. Now knowing that we have different schedules and different people around us is sometimes confusing, and I get to a point where I feel lonely without him. I met a lot of people in high school because of him, and so it has been difficult to meet people without having a buffer. I've had to make a lot of scary effort for me to be able to say hi to people and talk to them, and I've had to use a lot of effort to do a lot of other things day to day.

Everything has just been natural around Jared; we started out as friends and I was never scared to talk to him about anything. I miss being able to have face to face conversations with him, because Skype and FaceTime are wonderful tools for being able to see his face, and phone calls for hearing him, but all are never a substitution for the real thing. I text him a lot so we do keep in contact, and I email him every night to tell him about what I did that day and how I'm feeling. It helps me to feel like we're closer than we really are, but it also lets me think back on everything that I did in that day, and sometimes I'm proud of all I accomplished, while other times I think "well I didn't really get a lot done at all." I get very anxious and depressed easily now, and it's always great to be able to text him when he's available. Seeing as how he is working on a show for another 3 weeks, however, sometimes it becomes hard to brood on conversations like this because I don't want to stress him out. But I'm happy to be going to see his show in the city next week so I can look at the amazing work I know he has done (and of course to see him in person again.)

Being this far from each other has taught both of us to appreciate the little things and to really take advantage of every second we get to spend together because they are precious moments in our lives where we can catch up and be happy together. I know we miss each other a lot now, and that things aren't going so smoothly thus far for either of us, but in time, we will be back in action. And I can't wait for that. Jared, I will see you sooner than you know and I hope you're ready for me! I love you!