3 Reasons to Fall in Love Long Distance

Dating long distance becomes an option for many reasons these days: military, job opportunities, and in my experience, the inter webs. While the distance can be taxing, the journey is exciting and, in some ways, way better than "traditional" dating.

We need to get to know some common terms and people before we start:

SDR: Short Distance Relationship.

Lucky duckies that don’t have to battle falling in love over distance.

LDR: Long Distance Relationship. 3.5 weeks out of 4, JB and I are 1400 miles apart, and constantly looking forward to closing that gap between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Chicago, Illinois.

JB: My Utah boyfriend’s new nickname, who when was first presented the idea of posting blogs on our long distance relationship, thought it would be cool to be referred to as James Bond (since JB are his initials). Thus, JB, my very believable international super spy boyfriend.

D: Me! The nickname is really for our safety - "Deirdre" is complicated (which can apply to many situations).

Living in Chicago, JB and I have been traveling back and forth just shy of year now, and we get asked a lot of similar questions on our travels and our relationship. We have learned the hardships of an LDR, and we reap the benefits from it too. Those benefits have led us to conclude that there are some ways that an LDR is even better than a SDR...

1. You become an innovator with time spent together.
No lie, being without your other person is taxing. You miss them all the time.

But it pushes you to get more creative on how to spend more quality time together, and to make sure you are including the other person in your daily life. How do JB and I manage this?
We find new ways to talk all the time: good morning texts, snapchats through the day (part of my marketing education has been supplemented by our extreme use of this app), late night phone calls, and weekly skype dates. Thank goodness for technology. It’s how we met, and how we keep our connectedness.

And we still do the normal dating thing (just on our phones or skyping) and doing our hobbies together, apart: planning trips, reminiscing on old dates, watching Netflix series, cooking from our fav recipe book Whole30 (forever in my sister’s debt for introducing us to this!), and falling to sleep together on the phone (investing in a comfy headset is worth it… and I still haven’t taken my own advice).

Chicken & Leeks from Whole30: Proof that JB & I are both learning how to cook.

And that JB (on the right) is way better at food presentation than I am.

2. You get to travel, and explore the other’s neck-of-the-woods.

Not only do JB and I get to visit our loves, but we get know and love new cities in a way a one time tourist never could.

Perhaps, that is because you get more opportunities to have fun getting lost and finding really beautiful accidents like this one of downtown Salt Lake City.

Photo courtesy of JB. Getting lost also courtesy of JB.

But, mistakes aside, it’s mostly because your LDR partner knows the lay of the land, what tourist attractions to avoid, what is really worth seeing, and what restaurants are must-eats.

3. Dating costs less

It sounds counterintuitive, but other than sometimes pricey plane tickets in an LDR, the rest of the costs are what decisions you make. As for plane tickets, there are ways around travel costs, like rewards programs, using expedia, and planning ahead of time.

JB and I are fortunate to see each other once a month, but that also means…. dating once a month. Work, obligations, our crazy lives, and extreme desire to spend as much time as we possibly can together, while apart, keeps us at home most nights and weekends. Our travel costs are still less than or equal to what our monthly entertainment budget would be if we lived closer together, going out much more frequently.

And as the dates we do when we are apart? Virtually priceless, and are costs you already have in your life (Netflix, phone, food, internet, etc…).

I will make a disclaimer though, because JB will argue we still have a hefty travel price, and I agree. That’s because we have formed into quite the foodies... sorry JB. Understandably so...