Long distance dating is a complicated subject that touches many a nerve with people. Of course, anyone who has ever tried to maintain a committed relationship with someone who lives in a different city, country or even continent will know that there will always be hordes of people to tell you why doing so is a terrible idea and name all the ways in which things can go awry. I’m going to skip to the punch line and tell you to give it a whirl if you think that what you have now is worth hanging on to.
While dating someone who lives far away is risky, so are most other romantic endeavours. Despite the old plenty-of-fish argument, I feel that there is nothing wrong with trying maintain a lasting relationship with someone that you care deeply about but happens to live far away, if that is what you want. Different things work for different people (some will feel like they’re missing out and some will not), but one thing is certain: you shouldn’t not do something because the outcome is unclear.
If you do find yourself in a long distance relationship, try not set too many expectations for how things are supposed to go and simply look at what happens over the next weeks and months as the ultimate test. If your relationship can stand the test of time, distance and lives moving in separate directions, then that is probably a sign that it can also stand many other things. And if it can’t, well, then it’s better to find that out sooner rather than later.