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"No matter what your age, relationships are tricky, but the distance factor is particularly top-of-mind during your late teens and early twenties. In the span of a few short years, you may move around quite a bit\u2014from your hometown to a college campus to your post-grad city of choice, perhaps with a semester abroad or some long-term travel sprinkled in.\n\nHow does dating work with all this geographic uncertainty? While absence makes the heart grow fonder for some, others find the stress of an LDR to be so not worth it. Read on for real girls' takes on long-distance love.\n\nThe Girl Who Moved to a New City\n\n \"When I graduated college and moved to the big city, my boyfriend stayed behind to finish his master's. We decided not to break up because we liked each other a lot, so why not try it out? You hear all sorts of things about long-distance relationships, but when you actually find yourself about to jump head first into one, you can't help but feel naively optimistic. 'But we'll Facetime all the time!' I thought. 'We'll see each other every month!'\n\nAt first, it was great. I lived in a new city and didn't know anyone, and it was always a relief when he visited because I knew I wouldn't have to either a) make half-hearted plans with people I didn't know very well or b) Netflix away the weekend. But eventually I made great friends, found a job I actually enjoyed, and stopped spending night after night at home on Skype. Suddenly having a boyfriend felt more like a burden. When he decided he was going to look for jobs in the city, I freaked. I'd spent the year essentially as a single girl\u2014doing what I wanted, precisely when and how I wanted to do it\u2014and I couldn't imagine having anyone to answer to, so I broke up with him. Days later, he found a job and moved a few subway stops away. Fast forward a couple years, and I'm still here, he's still here, and we're still broken up.\"\n\nThe Girl Who Fell in Love from Afar\n\n \"I've been in a long-distance relationship for about a year and a half; I live in Florida and my boyfriend lives in Guadalajara, Mexico, where I'm originally from. We met through a mutual friend, but he wasn't interested in starting a relationship because he was about to leave for college in Germany.\n\nThrough the marvels of modern communication, however, we kept in touch and our friendship grew. A few months later, I went to Mexico to visit family during the holidays, and he was home then too. We hung out just the two of us, and it was really special. As the months went by, we Skyped more and more, and he decided to transfer from engineering school in Germany to culinary school in Mexico. I spent that next summer in Guadalajara, and he asked me to be his girlfriend. We had an incredible few months, but I didn't see him again until Christmas. It's really difficult maintaining a long-distance relationship, especially when you only see each other twice a year, but it can be worth it!\"\n\nThe Girl Who Split Her Time\n\n \"As a college sophomore, I started dating a senior early in the year. It stopped and started a couple of times, but once he graduated, things took a turn for the serious. We were both in New York for the summer, and it was as if a switch turned on. He launched into real-world boyfriend mode, taking me out to dinner and doing the whole meet-the-parents thing.\n\nThe next year I decided to divide my time to make things work: one weekend at school, the next in NYC, and so on. There was never any discussion of him coming to visit me, since his job was incredibly demanding and he felt he was constantly on call, even on weekends (and even when I was there). Once I graduated and moved to the city, our dynamic changed completely. I was under a lot of pressure to choose between him and his friends or mine every weekend. I felt stifled\u2014rather than lucky\u2014being in the same city as him! After three-and-a-half years and so much effort, we broke up.\"\n\nThe Girl Who Took a Break\n\n \"My boyfriend and I started dating my freshman year of high school. He's a year older than me, and we ended up staying together until he graduated, even though he transferred schools during our first few months together. I thought that would be the biggest test for our relationship, but I failed to think ahead to the fact that he would be finishing high school before me!\n\nBy the time he went to college, we decided to take a break since we were about to be in completely different places in our lives. The break didn't last long though\u2014we realized we weren't happy without each other and that distance and busy schedules couldn't keep up apart. Now he's a college graduate with a full-time job, and I'm completing my senior year of college in a different city. We're proof that sometimes distance can help make relationships stronger!\"\n\nThe Girl Who Had an International LDR\n\n \"I met a wonderful, cute, smart boy during the summer after my sophomore year of college. We were working at a sleepaway camp together and dated for a month or so. After the term ended, our summer romance turned into a full-fledged relationship despite him being in med school in Toronto and me being in college in the Northeast.\n\nWe tried to see each other whenever school breaks allowed, which was fine until I got accepted to a study abroad program in Australia. Literally the other side of the world!\u00A0We survived (barely) thanks to daily emails and a few outrageously expensive phone calls (sorry, parents!). I felt pretty special, but at the same time, knew I was missing out not only on a \"real relationship\" experience, but also on my semester abroad. Looking back, I spent way too much time trying to stay in touch with him and deepen our relationship through words shared on a screen, and not enough time having fun (and hanging out with cute Aussie surfer dudes!).\u00A0After much mutual heartache and frustration that had built up throughout the continuously long-distance relationship, we broke up the next fall.\"\n\nThe Girl Who Felt Selfish\n\n \"During our first couple months dating, my boyfriend and I lived near each other and we hung out every weekend. It wasn't until several months in that he told me he was moving to another state. I didn't know how to feel, and the sadness didn't really hit me until he officially moved. After several months, the distance started to take its toll.\n\nI was in California without a car, so it was hard for me to drive to Nevada and see him, though he would drive to me when he had a free weekend. Our time together was something I really cherished, but I hated the feeling I got whenever he had to go back home. There were times I felt it was unfair for me to have to go through this, which made me feel really selfish. Seeing couples hanging out on a whim made me sad, since I knew I could never do that. Now we've been together for almost two years, and I have learned to appreciate the distance between us. Although we're far apart, it makes me miss him more and really value the time we actually do get to spend with each other.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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