Maintaining a long-distance romance can be tough, but with communication and understanding, it can blossom into an incredible relationship
As we become a truly global society, communication technology allows us to share ideas instantly across wide spaces, and the Internet is becoming an accepted way to meet people with similar passions. But when we're involved with someone who lives many miles away, we're still faced with the very real distance between ourselves and the object of our affections.
Jerry, a Washington, D.C.-based scientist, and Annette, a California writer, began a cyberspace romance that took off in a way that surprised them both � numerous emails. His wake-up notes. Her wistful goodnight mail. Her morning had scarcely begun when he looked up from afternoon coffee to click out a brief summary of his day's events. The catch: Their computers, and their lives, were a continent and three time zones apart. The couple, fueled by romance, decided to take a chance and book a cruise together. "People thought we were crazy," says Annette, "Perhaps we were, but it worked for us."
Indeed, it can be tough to embark upon something that society often views in a negative light. We're often admonished to remember that long-distance relationships are just too difficult to manage. We're told "It'll never work," by well-meaning friends and family. Dr. Judith Waters, director of the Master of Arts program and a counselor at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, is among the hopeful. She knows firsthand what it takes to keep a long-distance romance alive.
For nine years, she and her husband were on opposite sides of the world while he oversaw construction of the parliament house in Canberra, Australia. "It worked because we made it work. Every two months, either I went there or he came here," she recalls.
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