Member-only story
I’m a Long-Distance Love, Got Married Early, Success Story
How my husband and I make it work despite all the odds against us
When I met my future husband-to-be in August 2003, I was twenty and ten days away from returning to college in Connecticut for my junior year. He was living in our home state of New Jersey, with a new job that would require him to stay there. I had no interest in a long-distance relationship.
But I went out with him anyway. Something about those blue eyes of his couldn’t keep me away.
We went on two dates before I left, and I was already smitten. It didn’t matter that we’d be over an hour apart with conflicting schedules; something about him made me want to make it work.
And work we knew it would be. You can’t get lazy when you start a relationship apart. We talked on the phone every night, sent letters and emails back and forth, and rotated weekend visits. I ensured all my school work was done during the week, so when we were together, all my focus was on him.
We made it two months together when he found out his Marine Corps reserve unit would be deploying to Iraq in the next few months, and he would be gone about a year.
New Jersey to Connecticut had been enough of a struggle. What would a world away do to…
