Lets Talk About Sex

If you’re dating someone who also attends the College, you’re lucky enough not to endure the stresses of a long-distance relationship during the academic year. Unfortunately, that changes quickly over the summer, when many college couples used to close proximity find themselves suddenly an hour or more apart.

This change, although it is short-term, can be shocking for couples that are assimilated to seeing their loved one several times a week. Having been through this experience more than once, here are my top five tips to ensure your romance survives the summer.

1. Discuss the terms before going home for the summer. It’s important to discuss your expectations of your long-distance summer with your partner before packing up your dorm room and heading home. Your significant other may expect to talk and see each other far more often or not nearly as often, so it’s vital to set the terms before you are already living through the long distance.

2. Find a balance between “not enough” and “too much.” A trap many couples fall into is either visiting their partner relentlessly, or not visiting them at all. If you’re spending the entire summer visiting your loved one, you’ll be spending a lot of money on gas, and your family and friends will feel both left out and rejected. On the other hand, if you rarely visit your partner, tension is bound to ensue. From my experience, visiting your partner for only a portion of the weekend is the best balance to strike.

3. Set standard times to talk with each other. It’s entirely possible that you and your partner will have opposite summer job schedules. For this reason, it’s vital to decide when and how often you’ll talk to each other. This goes along with the “not enough” versus “too much” tip. You don’t want to be spending countless hours on the phone with your partner, but never talking to them is unhealthy for the relationship.

4. Spend time with your friends. Summer is your chance to catch up with old friends, so don’t neglect them by spending superfluous amounts of time commuting to see your boyfriend or girlfriend. Make sure to invite them to group outings, meet your loved one and also spend time with your friends without your significant other.

5. Make your time together more meaningful. During the academic year, dates with your partner may typically consist of dinner and a movie, but since you’ll probably see one another less over the summer, a good idea is to make every moment memorable. You can include your friends, too, by taking trips to the shore, Six Flags, concerts and camping. Use your time off as an opportunity to do extra-fun things with the person you love.

Lauren Gurry can be reached at gurry2@tcnj.edu.