Ask anybody, long distance relationship are tough. Being so invested in somebody and loving someone so unconditionally, and not being able to see them every day really does get upsetting when you’re 458 miles away. I met my boyfriend the summer after I graduated high school. We both knew that I would be leaving in three months to move from Orange County up to Northern California, but the way we clicked together, we knew we wanted to try and make it work.

We started dating in June and I left in August, and leaving was so hard on both of us. It was my first time in a very serious relationship and I didn’t want to imagine that I wasn’t going to see him for another two months, until I came home to visit. Honestly, I feel like both of us didn’t know what was going to happen. We both knew we wanted to make it work but we didn’t know if we could actually do it.

The beginning was extremely rough. I was transitioning into living 450 miles away from home, by myself for the first time in my life. I missed my parents, my siblings, and my boyfriend. There were a lot of tears shed, and I mean a lot. I didn’t know how I was going to get through it. My boyfriend and I were constantly fighting because we were still so new to our relationship and we were trying so hard to make it work. It took a few months, but when we finally communicated with each other enough, we figured out ways in how we would make it work.

We knew that we loved each other, and that Christmas break was only four months away. We knew that both of us would need to make a lot of sacrifices for each other, and we knew that we wouldn’t be able to talk 24/7 with conflicting work schedules and school. Once we both had the mindset that being with each other was more important than talking 24/7, it just kind of clicked, like we did. We made a plan that I would fly home every other month for the weekend in order to see him, and that he would come up here whenever he could.

I think people who think long distance relationship don’t work, are those who don’t realize that when you can’t see someone every day, it makes the time that you do get to see them that much more special. It does require a lot of trust, but if you are in a relationship with someone, of course you are going to need to trust them right from the start. Yeah, at the beginning, I think we were both worried about one of us cheating on the other, but once we realized that we trusted each other 100 percent, and knew that cheating wasn’t going to be a problem, we knew this wasn’t going to be as hard as it seemed.

After two years of being in a successful long distance relationship, anytime someone is hesitant about committing to one, I always tell them that it can work. It can work if you love the person with all your heart, and that you are going to be fully devoted and trustworthy towards them. It can work if you know you’re not going to see them every day, but you know that when you eventually see them, that it will make the time you have together so much more special. It can work. Love is powerful and can conquer a couple of hundred miles.