Distance Makes the Heart Grown Fonder: Relationships While Abroad

       "Absence is to love what wind is to fire: it will extinguish the small and enkindle the great." My boyfriend of five and a half years says this to me quite often, as we were never the traditional couple that went to the same high school, and even now we don't attend the same college. There is always that fear when you or your significant other travels or goes away for an extended period of time, the fear that they may forget about you, that they may find someone else, that they may realize that they don't miss you at all, or worse yet, that you may find you don't miss them. But things like that happen when the wind has extinguished a small flame of passion masquerading as love, for when two people truly love each other, distance can only make that fondness stronger.

       It was not easy to say "see you later" to Taylor and board a plane for 3,724 miles away, but we both knew that this was an experience I could not pass up. That is the first part of this, the first part of any big decision in a couple's relationship made by one that affects them both - it's the question of support, and, quite honestly, if your significant other doesn't support you going abroad, it's time to reconsider the relationship. Now, do not misunderstand me. I don't mean that you should dump them if they're sad or hesitant about you leaving for 6 weeks or 4 months or a year; I mean that they should, no matter how much that distance will pull at their heart, support you in the adventure you'd like to embark on. 

       Every couple will have their own way of dealing with this time apart and their own method of communicating because usually you won't have a normal phone while abroad and will be completely reliant on wifi. 

Emails - When I went to Japan for three weeks during high school, we could only communicate through daily emails. Emails are nice because they are long love letters you can keep forever, but they are slower than the communication most of us are used to today, and that may cause some frustration if you're used to talking constantly with your significant other. 

iMessage - If you and your significant other have iPhones, iMessage is probably the easiest way to go, considering you're basically just texting them as you normally would and can use it as long as you're on wifi. 

Viber - Taylor and I used an app called Viber that allows instant messaging, calls, and facetime through wifi. It was very reliable, and I also used it to keep in touch with my family. It's free and you can talk to anyone who has the app as long as you both have wifi/data.

Facebook - Facebook is pretty obvious, but it's an easy way to keep in touch with messaging. 

To my surprise, I got to talk to Taylor a lot more than I expected while I was in London, even with him working full time as a chef and the 5 hour time difference. Every couple will be different, and Taylor and I had it easy because, as I said, we aren't used to seeing each other all the time. But as long as both of you work and you take your significant other's feelings into account, you should return to loving arms that missed you dearly and be able to pick up exactly where you left off.