- There will be days where you're sad,
there will be days that you're hurting
and there will be days
that you miss that person more than ever
but I'm telling you it is so worth it
and the time that you see them afterwards
is even more worth it
and it makes it that much more enjoyable.
(peaceful music)
I've been in a long relationship
with my boyfriend named Chris
who lives about eight hours away from me.
- We're about 3,700 miles apart.
- He's from Norway and I'm from Brazil.
- In August of 2013, I made the eight-hour plane journey
to Manchester, England to meet him.
- We met each other at a website called 7 Cups
in which we're both volunteer listeners
to anyone who's going through a rough time
and even though we started off as friends,
the more we talked, the more we clicked.
- It was obvious after a couple months of texting
that we had a chemistry.
- Being in a long-distance relationship isn't easy.
- Like sometimes you just want to pick up your phone
and order an Uber or just get in your car
and drive to that person but you can't
because it's not physically possible.
- The three most important things for us
were commitment, trust and communication.
- Communication is definitely key,
Skypes, texts, funny photos, tagging in memes.
- Have scheduled days to like have calls
or have FaceTime, stuff like that
to make yourself feel closer to them.
- Sometimes we also leave random messages
on each other's phones.
- These things are so much fun
and they make the distance so much more bearable.
- You have to put in a lot of trust in each other.
- It's already hard for some people to trust
people that live close to them
so imagine living miles and miles away from someone
and having that trust that you need to have with them.
- You know, I was in college
so I was going to bars and stuff like that
and there was never a moment where Joe was jealous at all
which made it so much easier.
I would just really work on building trust.
- Once you are able to fully trust them
and they're able to fully trust you,
it makes it that much easier.
- My biggest tip, being in a long-distance relationship,
is to always have a trip planned.
- Make a plan with your partner.
- Plan the next time you'll see them
or plan little trips to see them
or little trips together or stuff like that.
Having that motivation, having that knowledge
that you know when you'll see them next
really, really helps with the times
that you're not with them.
- Try to visit as much as possible,
he visited me this past March for the whole month
and I'll be going up there in July for the whole month.
- Setting up an end goal and working towards it
makes a world of a difference.
- This October is exciting because well be getting married
and hopefully I'll be able to relocate soon after that.
- We're still together, we are both in Southern California.
Hopefully, we're here for the long haul,
I really wanna be, I love him a lot.
- I'm happy to say that I've purchased my one-way ticket
to Manchester to finally move in with him in December
and we have set a date
later on in March of 2019 to get married.
- Long-distance relationships can be scary and difficult.
- And it's not for everyone but I feel like
if you have a strong connection with that person
and you really love that person,
no matter how far they are,
you're gonna always feel their presence
like they're right next to you
and both of y'all can withstand anything that comes at you.
- Long-distance relationships can be difficult
and a lot of people even say that they're impossible
or they're unrealistic or they're too difficult
but I think that if you find someone
that you don't want to be without,
don't let the distance stop you from being together.
Distance is temporary.
Good things are worth fighting for.
(peaceful music)