If you’ve been there, you know it all too well. It’s difficult to balance your friendships and your career with any romantic relationship, let alone one in which you don’t get to see the other person whenever you want. Plus, while romantic relationships can be wonderfully fulfilling, they’re work as it is. Factor in time differences, busy schedules, and miles apart, and you could really start feeling the strain.
But, thanks to technology, maintaining a LDR these days is easier than ever. Though IRL face time is obviously the best way to keep a relationship going, the ease with which we can get face time on our phones (whether through Snapchat, Skype, or, you know, FaceTime) can certainly make that distance gap feel narrower.
FaceTime dinner dates are so much fun and close to real life, where you actually go out and order at any place, sit and eat while on FaceTime together!
Agree on an evening, find a new recipe for dinner that neither of you have tried, FaceTime/Skype while both cooking it, then eat it ‘together’!
Do things ‘together’ even when you’re not together, watch a specific TV show, read the same book, or listen to the same podcast and then discuss.
Schedule trips to see each other at least twice a month and if you live in different countries 4 times a year is fair enough, and anytime else send each other packages, gifts or written letters just because.
Netflix Go also worked as a good date solution — you don’t actually have to FaceTime or phone while watching the shows and start watching a show you both have never seen.
If your long-distance relationship kept going for more than a year. Send each other old-school letters pretty frequently, and care packages (for the bigger occasions). Also use Snapchat a lot; it’s nice to see someone’s face! I also think talking on the phone is key. The biggest one, to me, is planning out the next time you’ll see each other; otherwise, there’s no light at the end of the tunnel!