By Chandler Walter, Editor-in-Chief
This week our feature article tackles the hardships that come with a long-distance relationship, and a few key tips for making it work when it feels like there is—or if there actually is—a continent between the two of you.
Not to spoil too much from the feature (you can find it in our centre-spread, accompanied by a wonderful, hand-drawn illustration by our very own Cara Seccafien) but the writer Duncan, spent seven years (!!!) in a long-distance relationship with his partner before finally closing that Vancouver to Florida gap.
To that I say “congratulations” …and also, “gad damn.”
I’m no stranger to planned phone conversations and the importance of Snapchat. For roughly a year my current girlfriend/roommate and I were separated by the Pacific Ocean—or, more specifically, the small portion of the Pacific that sits between Vancouver and Victoria.
*One shameful Google search later* It’s called the Strait of Georgia.
So yeah, we were only 4.25 hours (depending on traffic and making that damn ferry) away from each other, but it still felt like a lot.
I’ve never been one to shy away from impulse, or allow myself to linger in a situation I felt I could improve through action. Normally I would have just packed up my bags, thrown a sleeping bag into the back of my truck, and taken off to Victoria to spend some time with the missus—everything else be damned.
But then I started going to college, and she was finishing up her degree, and another handful of reasons came up as to why we should just get through the long-distance stuff now so we can live together later.
Two semesters, half a summer, and countless ferry rides later, and we’ve managed to close that distance, just as ****HUGE SPOILER WARNINGS**** Duncan and his girlfriend did with their (much longer) time apart.
It really does go to show that if you can do it, it’s worth it. Three years ago I would have scoffed at the notion of dating someone that you can only see through a screen, or who might be in a different time zone, but now it really does make sense.
If it’s right, it’s right, and there’s always ways to make it work—whether that means scheduling vacations to Florida, or braving the deep dark waves of the Pacific Ocean Strait of Georgia—because a good long-distance relationship usually becomes a great no-distance relationship.
Unless you’re being cat-fished, of course, then there’s really not much you can do.
