College can put a great distance between yourself and home. Sometimes, this distance puts a gap between you and your significant other, and that can be a strain. But is the strain necessary?

It can be hard not being around your loved one all the time, and it’s a different kind of monster to handle in how you’re going to keep your relationship alive. Some couples manage to make it thrive, and some simply can’t handle the distance and break up. Long distance isn’t something every couple can handle.

“It’s hard,” Desi Thomas, a junior creative writing and Spanish double major, said. “You start questioning everything because you don’t know what’s going on when you’re gone. You have this expectation that you’re going to be calling or texting each other all the time, but that’s not going to happen. You start to wonder what they’re doing, who they’re doing it with, and so on.”

Generally, that’s a reason couples are unable handle the strain. It can be a shock going from seeing each other everyday to going weeks without being in each other’s presence.

“Long distance in the first year is like marriage in the first year, but in a different way. Trust and faithfulness are tested,” Thomas, who is in a long distance relationship, said.

However, trust is a key aspect in a relationship, and you need to build that trust, no matter if you’re near or far. It can be hard, and you can have doubts, but that’s part of being in a relationship. For some people, trust is hard, and it takes a while to build it up, but at least try to work toward it.

Once trust is built, faithfulness should follow shortly behind. Give your significant other a reason to trust you in your faithfulness, and they should be able to do the same. Another key aspect is communication.

“Sometimes you start to feel like you don’t have a boyfriend or significant other because there’s a time gap between the next time you see or talk to each other,” Thomas said.

There’s going to be gaps. You may not get to talk to your significant other every day, and that can be difficult, too. Sometimes, you’ll be lucky if it’s every other day, once a week or maybe even a little longer. Perhaps this is something to talk with your significant other about, to set up some sort of schedule or timeline so you’re at least touching base every so often, so you don’t feel alone.

“A lot of people think it’s easy, but there’s a lot of hard work that goes into maintaining it,” Christina Espinoza, a junior nursing major, said.

That’s just the thing. A relationship is never easy, and a long distance relationship can be even harder. If you think a relationship is easy, then you may want to reevaluate how good the relationship really is. There’s going to be fights and tears, good moments and bad ones, but that’s all part of what giving your heart to someone entails.

Through the ups and downs, you can survive, though. If you maintain communication, trust, faithfulness and love in a long distance relationship, you can keep the love alive. Make a day, or a weekend, to visit each other, have a long phone date and don’t give up on each other just because you have a huge gap in distance between the two of you.

If you can get through the first year of long distance, chances are that your relationship will be better.

“For those who stay together even after they’ve gone through the first year, their relationship becomes stronger,” Thomas said. “You start to ignore the doubts; you don’t have to question them anymore. And even for those who breakup, it opens their eyes to the true color of the person, and you have the knowledge to take to the next relationship.”

But let’s keep the love alive. Don’t let the distance bring death to your relationship; put the love back in long distance.