TOGETHER, APART

Are you in a long-distance relationship? Are you tired of hearing all the messages of doom from people who swear your relationship is bound to fail? ALISON SIFUMA shows you how to foster your connection despite the space between.

- ALISON SIFUMA

After a long search, you find ‘the one’ you are willing to spend the rest of your life with. You are over the moon happy. But just before you get comfortable, delocalization hits you and now your boo is 700 kilometres away from you and it's impractical to see each other every other day. Or maybe, after swiping left and right on Tinder you found your match, but they live in another city. Or Coronavirus dictates that you self quarantine apart.

People rarely get into long-distance relationships (LDR) on purpose. You become victims of circumstance where your partner has to relocate or lives in a different town but you cannot uproot your life in an instant to be with them.

We won’t sugarcoat this, long-distance relationships suck. Yes you will miss your partner, you might often feel lonely, there is nobody to Netflix and chill with, you are faced with an empty house, empty bed, the list is endless. But that does not mean they do not work. French memoirist Roger de BussyRabutin wrote, ‘absence is to love as wind is to fire; It extinguishes the small and kindles the great.’

Here's a look at 10 things you need to make long-distance relationships work.

1 Get virtual

Gone are the days of waiting by the landline just so you can speak to your beloved once a week. In this era where everything is just a click away, it becomes a lot easier for couples to stay connected. Take advantage of Skype and FaceTime, even WhatsApp video calls with your partner. Watch your favourite movies on Netflix together. Light some candles, pour yourself a glass of wine and have dinner together. Sure, it’s an unconventional date, but it’s beautiful.

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