"Distance gives us a reason to love harder."

I am a college student, I am in a sorority, I love parties and going out with friends as much as the next girl, but I also love my long-distance relationship.

Since when did long-distance relationships get a bad rep, and when did they become a negative thing? Since when did friends stop supporting friends who love someone halfway across the country? And since when did staying in on a Friday night to FaceTime someone you never see become a crime? I'm in college, and I love someone who is thousands of miles away, and that's OK.

There are so many bad things said about long-distance love; these things are being said by people who can't understand it. They are said by people who are used to having their love with them all the time. I dare them to be apart from their boyfriends or girlfriends for a month tops, and see how they handle it. I dare someone who isn't in a long-distance relationship to stop judging those of us who are, because last time I checked, being faithful is a good thing.

No, I'm not wasting my time, so please find a new line to say to me when I go home early from a party to talk to my boyfriend. Some things are more important to other people, and that's OK. It's OK to have different priorities, and it's OK to handle situations differently. I won't regret leaving a party; I won't regret missing out on an hour's worth of drinking to talk to someone I love and never see. I won't ever regret choosing my relationship over one party or 10 minutes of one.

No, I don't wish I could have sex with other people because my boyfriend's not around. I think this comment gets to a lot of people. I don't know when sex became the greatest concern in a relationship, but here's some advice — you don't need to have sex constantly to keep a relationship strong and healthy, you don't need sex constantly to be with your partner and if you think sex is the only thing keeping your partner from sleeping with other people, maybe you should reevaluate your own relationship.

Being in college while in a long-distance relationship is hard; I'd be lying if I said it's easy. However, it's not hard, because you miss the physical aspect; it's not hard because you miss out on things; it's not hard because you're "tied down." It's hard because you love that person so much; you wish you could be with them. It's hard because you see couples walking around campus holding hands; you see couples dancing and kissing at parties; you see you're friends laughing and hugging their love, and you wish you could be doing that at that very second with the person you love.

Our love stories are different. They aren't bad; they are just different. We have so much trust in our relationships; we have so much love and bonding and memories to keep our love alive. We have to work twice as harder than relationships that thrive while being together. We're strong people, we're happy, we're in love, and we wouldn't trade our relationships for the world, and people need to understand that that's OK.

Being in college and in a long-distance relationship is perfectly OK, and we wouldn't want to wait for anyone else, no matter how long we'd have to wait.

P.S. I love you DK. I'll be right here when you come home to me from deployment. XO