My Long Distance Relationship

I have been with my boyfriend officially for a year in the New Year (4 days into it actually), and I've known him for considerably longer than that. When we met he was still a soldier in the British Army (Yikes!) and I was and still am a University student—to his dismay.

We met like EVERY couple meets these days... on a dating website, only ours was slightly different. Neither of us intended to become interested in someone, the app was more of a way to waste time in the day or evening as opposed to anything else. All that aside, the powers that be decided otherwise.

I was initially attracted to him by the way he talked—he greeted me with respect, no expectations and purely for a conversation (his attention span ranges from non-existent to only just better) as he was bored. I thought why not, the boy is gorgeous, can hold a conversation and seems to be interested in what I have to say too, lets see how long this lasts.

He told me that he was from the Lake District but on base in Yorkshire and I told him that I was from Chester but at university in Plymouth. Immediately I thought that nothing was going to come of it as we were so far away physically, I mean why would any 20 year old soldier want to waste his time with someone half way across the country, right?

Wrong! As time went on and we realised we had as much in common as we didn't. But the niggling feeling in the back of my head that actually made my chest hurt was that all of this was over a phone. Texting, FaceTime - it was all electronic. He was the one to voice that when we were both home for Christmas, we should meet up—once again igniting my hope.

A petrified train journey and nerve wracking walk later on the 20th December 2017—there he was; And as we can do nothing normally (it's just not who we are)—he was sat in a chair getting a new tattoo! It's a good job I like them too.

At that moment, when I first laid my eyes on him and his face lit up and smiled at me. This big, strong army man—my fears, my nerves, everything faded away and it was just him. The man I'd gotten to know over the previous months.

Again, as unconventional as our meeting, I received a voice mail on the 4th January 2018 (2 days before my birthday) telling me it's really awkward to try and explain me to everyone so if I didn't mind he would be referencing me as his girlfriend from there on out. My man doesn't beat around the bush, blunt and to the point.

I was over the moon and overjoyed - only to realise that I had to go back to University and him back to base in the next few days. How would we cope? How long would this doomed relationship last?

Well, if I ever questioned his dedication to me and to our relationship, I was proven very wrong where a couple weeks after we got back I received a text asking if I would be up for a visit the following weekend. Without question, he would pay the (extortionate) train prices and sit on a train for 8 hours straight just to spend some time with me.

Since then it has been a back and forth situation where I go to his, he comes down to me, we meet in the middle... on average we don't see each other for around 6 weeks at a time. By that time we start missing each other so much that we start fighting over the littlest of things—only for everything to dissipate the second we see each other. All is right with the world again.

Long distance relationships are one of the hardest things in life to do, they hurt and ache and you pine for them constantly. But I couldn't live without him. 300+ miles away or 3 feet away, I need him and I'd like to think he needs me too!

We fight, any healthy couple does, and the distance and the student and the solider subject has come up many times, but he knew going in that I was a student, I knew that he was a soldier and consequently I come second, I have to. We both knew that we would have no money for the foreseeable future as it would all go to the British Railway network - but we were worth it. We still are!

As I write this post I am packing my suitcase ready to get on three different trains and travel up half of the country to see him for the first time in two months and my stomach is in knots, even a year down the line.

Long distance is hard, it's tiring and it's challenging but if you find the right person, it will always be worth it.