Long distance relationships can be rough.  You’re totally into this person, but they live miles and miles away so you barely see each other.  There’s a limit to how comforting it is to talk on the phone or via Skype or to type *hugs* in an IM.  It’s just not the same when you want real hugs and can’t get them except from your cats, which is semi-pathetic since most cats don’t hug back (damn I stand corrected).

What’s awesome about a long distance relationship:

When you do see each other, it’s ON.  You cram in as much fun as possible into the time you have with each other.  The weekends you have together are amazing and the best sex you’ve had in your whole life.

You have a ton of freedom.  When deciding how to spend your evening / weekend / month, you don’t have to worry about the other person.  After all, you can call them from anywhere.

You don’t fight much, since you don’t really see each other a lot.

It’s a good way to test the trust and commitment level in your relationship.  If you don’t get jealous when your partner announces he’s going out to a party with a bunch of people, then you’re probably going to do pretty well in the long term.

What’s awesome about a short distance relationship:

You can build your level of intimacy since you’re together more often.  You have more time to experiment in the bedroom and find the best ways to please each other.

You’ll always have an activity partner who wants to be with you.

You will quickly find out the “little things” that annoy you about the person.  Does he always pee on the toilet seat? Is he annoyed when you use his razor to shave your legs, leaving it all dull and clogged with hair?  Can you survive living the rest of your life with this guy?

You’ll have the other person on a short leash if you don’t trust them!  (But seriously, if you don’t trust them, you shouldn’t be in a relationship with them.)

How to cope when things change

When your long distance love moves to town, you may first find yourself excited.  Finally!  They’re here!  You can have sex every day!  It’ll be totally freakin’ awesome.  And it is… at least at the beginning.  It’ll feel like an extended version of those amazing weekends you used to have together.

But eventually, it’ll start to feel like a regular ol’ normal relationship.  You’ll start to take each other for granted.  You’ll find things that really annoy you about the other person.  You’ll wonder if things were better when you didn’t see each other so often.  Did you waste all that time dating the person long distance when you’re really not compatible?

Don’t let this happen to you!  One of the things I’d strongly suggest is discussing some of the hard topics related to you your relationship BEFORE your long distance relationship becomes a short distance relationship.  The best way I’ve found to do this is by taking Adam & Sital’s Compatibility Test.

This is hands down the best way out there to have a good, open, honest discussion about key relationship issues before making this big step.  This test isn’t some cheesy, scale of 1-10 test you’d find in Cosmo.  It exposes those important elements of a relationship and will help you and your guy have an open discussion.

Once you take the compatibility test and discover you guys are actually compatible, just take a deep breath and hang in there.  You’ll be fine and your relationship will probably be stronger in the long run since you know for a fact you don’t have trust, commitment or compatibility issues!

What do you guys think? How hard is it to go from a long distance to a short distance relationship? What are some of the pro’s and con’s of each? Share you thoughts with us!