Long Distance Relationships.

I was one of those people that always said I would never be in a long distance relationship, as to me, it didn't seem like any kind of relationship at all. I stick to what I said - I would never have gotten myself into this relationship if I'd have known we would ever become long distance, but when you get thrown into a long distance relationship suddenly with no warning, it's too hard to just let someone go.

On 2nd September, I became in a long distance relationship with no time to prepare for it. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, despite only having to do it until the end of November. Today is the day that I have to start coping with the distance again, so I felt like I needed to blog about it.

Being in a long distance relationship isn't easy, and we are in the same country. I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like for those who are in long distance relationships overseas, or with those who are in some kind of military. I am not saying that we have it any worse than any other couple - I just want to express my feelings.

The two of us used to stay in the same house, the same bed, every single night, and work in the same building every single day, although it was in different departments. Going from that to living in different parts of the country is incredibly hard.

There are 293 miles between us. That's approximately 5 hours in the car or 8 hours by coach or train. It's a long way. The only communication we have is by text and phone due to him not having internet down there, and sometimes the signal is so bad that phone calls get cut off or texts don't get sent or received for hours. It's hard, but it works.

Enough about me and my relationship, it's time to get onto the reason why I wanted to write this blog, and that is to show people that long distance relationships do work. People can be very ignorant and ask questions like, "Well, aren't you cheating on each other?" - No, we are not. If we didn't want to be together, we wouldn't put up with the distance and would find relationships closer to home, but we don't do that. I'm sure every other couple has had this question asked to them too.

I just wanted to share some statistics that I found out about long distance relationships, which is really the main reason for this blog post. So here we go:
Please remember that these statistics are averages and do not necessarily apply to every couple that is in a long distance relationship.

1.5 - the average amount of times that an LDR couple sees each other in one month
2.7 days - the average time between phone calls in an LDR
4.5 months, average amount of time it takes for an LDR to break up if it's not going to last10 percent of marriages begin as long distance relationships
14 months is the average time before an LDR can close the distance32.5 percent of college relationships are long distance
40 percent of long distance relationships break up
60 percent of long distance relationships last through the distance
75 percent of engaged couples have been LDR at some point in their relationship
125 miles is the average distance in a long distance relationship
3.75 million married couples are still in a long distance relationship
14 million people who class themselves as being in an LDR

The fact that stands out to me the most is that 60 percent of long distance relationships make it through the distance, which is obviously more than half. So next time you are doubting somebody else's relationship just because they don't live close by, think about that.

Clare
(twitter / instagram)
xxx