Friday 11 April 2014

15 Surprising Yet Totally Wonderful Upsides to Long Distance Relationships

When you finally do get to share the bed, it's pure joy.

1. You never get sick of each other. Because you only see each other one or two weekends a month — less time than you probably spend, collectively, like, doing laundry.

2. Each weekend spent together is like a mini vacation. Long distance relationship people who watch TV together actually WATCH TV together (read: cuddling, giggling, enjoying each other), rather than having the TV on while they sit on the couch and read their phones with the cat in between them. Or if the weather's nice we get off our asses and actually use those free aquarium passes his aunt gave him. Because time is precious and no second together can be wasted looking mindlessly at emails you've already read on your iPhone.


3. You can surprise each other more spectacularly. Because you can show up at his place before he gets home one weekend. Nothing beats a surprise visit when he's not expecting it (except the sex you have when he shows up).

4. It's fun to do banal things together. Like grocery shop. Or laundry. Because you do so little together and have each other around so infrequently that even scraping lasagna from the plates you ate off when you HAD DINNER TOGETHER AT YOUR APARTMENT becomes a thing to relish.

5. You enjoy sharing a bed. Everyone knows couples who share a bed sometimes just want nothing more than the other person to get out the damn bed early in the morning so they can sprawl out like a starfish, like God intended. In a long-distance relationship, it's impossible to stop cuddling when you're in the thing. You are a koala, he is your tree.

6. It's like having a second home in another city. Which basically makes you like a person who has homes all over the world. (Beyoncé.) (You are Beyoncé.) (#blessed)

7. You're usually available when your friends want to hang out. Because your time with your S.O. is so strictly scheduled and rare that when your friends call you to go out for tacos on a random Sunday because it's unexpectedly sunny outside, you can just go without leaving him by himself at home.

8. It's easy to balance your friend time and relationship time. Because you only have your S.O. for a few days out of the month and your friends don't mind if you disappear when you're together.

9. It strengthens your communication skills. Making a long distance relationship work is ALL about communication, and not just talking on the phone every day or every other day, but also communicating about life goals. When do you plan on the distance part ending? You both have to discuss that and be on the same page for it to work.

10. You have a lot of excuses to splurge on nice dates without regret. Because your dates happen infrequently, you can spend double what you might normally without feeling like you really should have saved that for your future mortgage.

11. You always have a trip to look forward to. To your second home, because that's how you ball.

12. You enjoy the benefits of living alone while also getting to practice living with your S.O. You can be messy for the weeks he's not staying with you, then practice being neat and tidy for the two or three days he's staying in your apt with you. Rinse and repeat.

13. If one of you has time off, you get to spend a week together. Which feels like a vacation even if you're home. Uninterrupted time together when you're so used to only getting weekends here and there is THE BEST!

14. You get to leave work early a couple times a month to see each other. You have an excuse because you have to leave early to catch your plane/train/automobile to see your S.O. Bosses tend to generally be understanding of this facet of LDR life.

15. You know if you can make it through this you can make it through anything.