Love

10 Lessons About Love That Long-Distance Relationships Teach That You Won’t Get From Normal Relationships

2016-08-12 , 3:33 pm

Last Updated on 2022-10-28 , 2:34 pm

I have never been in a long distance relationship before but I definitely had friends who did. You know the running off to one corner to answer the phone when their other half calls through and the “I need to get home straight after work because it’s our Skype night”? Yep, those.

Long distance relationships never really resonated with me but it worked well for some of my friends and as happy as I am for them, it sometimes makes me wonder what they really had to go through to make it so far.

It’s pretty amazing since the both of them are literally thousands of miles apart and although the saying “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” stands true, you know there is also the adage “Out of sight, out of mind”.

So what can we learn from long distance relationships that we will probably never get from the short ones?

1. Patience is the key.

I have heard my friends say this over and over again. “Patience is a virtue we need to have”.

And for them waiting on their other halves to make that trip back into their arms for a mere week or so every half a year is undoubtedly a huge challenge.

But these people, they take it in their stride and busy themselves with their work, friends and family while they wait. And for some, it paid off handsomely.

2. You need to have faith.

Trust is a very large component of a long distance relationship and those in it know that very well.

They need to consistently keep the faith and believe in their other halves that all is good and neither of them is being unfaithful.

It’s tough, but some of them somehow get through it and survive. It’s sad that many couples who are in short distance relationships can’t even keep this basic requirement up and get suspicious over the smallest things.

3. No such thing as complacency

Because they don’t get to see each other as and when they want to, long distance relationship couples treasure their time together dearly.

You may have witnessed tearful farewells at the airport when one of them has to return from whence they came from and it’s heartbreaking.

But then, we have short distance couples who take each other’s presence for granted and fling it around like their whole relationship is just a piece of garbage.

4. Communicate, communicate, communicate

The next time your friend says s/he needs to run home quick to do a Skype call with his/her other half who is in London, please be a dear and understand.

This is their only means to keep in touch with each other on a daily basis and through the time zones. Some of us are lucky we have our better halves to speak to face to face as and when we like but for them, it will be a long wait until the next night for them to talk again.

5. Being old-fashioned can be romantic.

Many of us in short distance relationships have forgotten what it is like to be romanticized the old-fashioned way.

However, if you notice, those in long distance relationships use this as an opportunity to make each other feel giddy with love over and over again by snail-mailing handwritten letters to each other.

It keeps the flame alive and makes them treasure each other even more.

6. Your other half is constantly in your thoughts.

Nary a day goes by that you do not think about him/her. What he/she is doing now, has he/she eaten, are they home safe, and the like.

One can only imagine what the other is doing on the other side of the world and you do at every chance you get. Short distance relationship couples, especially if we have been in a relationship long enough, will usually think about our other halves when we need them.

7. Heartache is real.

When you are in a long distance relationship, you know what true heartache feels like because you miss them every single day and yet, you cannot touch them or even talk to them to find out how they are whenever you want to.

For short relationship folks, most of the time our heartache stems from petty fights and unneeded arguments or, more seriously, when we break up.

8. Thriftiness is a virtue.

One thing I realised of my friends in long distance relationships is that they are very frugal and the reason why they are so is clear enough.

They are hoping to save as much money as they in the shortest amount of time to buy flight tickets to go see their beloved. The more money they have, the more times they can fly over to see them and that’s what motivates them to work hard and be thrifty.

9. Their relationship is built on a much stronger foundation.

After all they have weathered and persevered through, seriously, there is literally nothing that can detour this couple.

Unlike short distance relationships that can be so fragile and break at any moment, long distance relationships, if they last, usually stand the test of time.

10. They have more exciting stories to tell their children and grandchildren in the future

Obviously right? It’s almost like, “Step aside boring short distance relationship love stories! Here comes the mother load of exciting long distance relationship ones!”

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