It is no secret that keeping an intimate and consistent connection is hard when you're in a long-distance relationship.

At the beginning of fall semester, this is what my boyfriend and I were struggling with. With him busy with football season and me busy with my new position as an RA and my job at the bookstore, we were hardly finding time to talk. When we did find the time, we were both getting tired of the, "so, what did you do today?" conversation.

The relationship was becoming monotonous and mundane.

He and I, having very proactive and open communication, started talking about these feelings early on. We brainstormed things together that we could do to foster intimacy and break up routine.

One day, He sent me an invitation to play Words With Friends. To be honest, I thought he might have gotten hacked or something because neither of us is the type of person to spend a lot of time playing games on their phone. I asked him and he said that he had read in an internet article that some people had used games on their phones to interact with their partners on a different level than just talking or texting.

We started playing and, being competitive as we are, we soon had multiple games going and were playing everytime we had a spare second. Some nights, we would call each other and just chat while we played.

This small act made a huge change in our relationship. In the same way, some people introduce new things into sex lives to "spice things up", we introduced something new into our interactions to keep things interesting.

I think of the greatest untapped ways to create intimacy is friendly competition.

Think about all those sappy romantic comedies and how many of them have sappy montage scenes of the couple bowling, playing carnival games, or sitting down to a card game and it being a big moment of growth, connection, and fun.

There is something about the game, the banter, and the inevitable laughter that helps bond the two of you. Words With Friends was the game that we both loved, but try any game and see if this works for you!

If you were wondering, we still play to this day and are tied for overall wins and losses.