A story which sheds light on these problematic relationships
Absence does not make the heart grow fonder
Long distance relationships never work out. There is something about having a person that is yours, and yet never being able to touch them. A relationship that doesn’t have human contact with one another is doomed from the beginning.
A friend, who we will call Jane, was in a long-distance relationship. Jane lived in Fargo, North Dakota and Tarrin lived in Los Angeles, California. This meant the two were approximately 1,782.3 miles apart. To put it another way, it would take 27 hours to drive from one point to another or 583 hours to walk. And how did this couple meet, in the most cliche way ever, on Twitter?
Jane was in the same friend group as Tarrin, and they always knew that they had feelings for each other. Both never said anything, because, what could they do? They lived hundreds of miles from each other. Finally, they went on a ‘date’ and they were happy … for five months. And then, inevitably, they weren’t.
There was always something missing from their relationship and they could never figure out what that was. Close to the very end of their relationship they finally figured it out: they were missing the ability to actually see each other.
Knowing that you have someone and holding that same someone are two completely different things. The main thing that Jane and Tarrin were missing was the warmth or comfort of the other. When one was sad, they didn’t have that shoulder to cry on. All they could do was call, text or FaceTime with their partner. Doing one of those three things can only do so much.
On the flip side, it is still difficult to feel happy feelings and never have that person there to share it with. Human beings need to have other people around them, we are a social species. When the only person we want to share everything with is not there, we don’t know what to do. When you can only see someone over a screen and you can never hold them, it negatively impacts that relationship. For these reasons and others, long distance relationships never work.