Bridging the miles: Survival tip #1: Keep It Real

Though love is reputed to be blind, never enter an LDR blindly. Talk realistically and openly about your options for the future as a couple. Try to pin down each of your expectations and lay down the ground rules. Most especially, pin down a time frame for being apart. A long distance relationship is not meant to become a permanent arrangement. Clarifying expectations help curb disappointment in the future.
Dr. Gregory Guldner, director of the Center for the Study of Long Distance Relationships and author of Long Distance Relationship: The Complete Guide, cites that nearly 70 percent of LDR couples who don’t talk about their plans break up within six months.
Planning is the key to building a successful foundation for a long distance relationship. As someone who has been in an LDR for two and a half years, 24-year-old social entrepreneur Josephine Perez* puts it eloquently when she says, “what makes [LDRs} easier is having a plan knowing when you’ll see each other next, taking steps towards being in the same time zone, working towards [being together] and dealing with the uncertainties that come along with it as partners. It’s easier when you have a goal, short-term and long-term.