We live in a time where long distance relationships happen and tend to work out more often than ever before. Thanks to technology people can communicate in so many more ways than say 50 years ago or even 30. There’s the phone, the mobile phone (ie. cells), texting, email, IM and chat, Skype, Video Calling with iPhones and iPads, heck they even build little tiny cameras right into the top of most lap tops these days. And, that’s just the communication part. Travel, now that’s another story.
Even in a struggling economy, there is still love. And it’s probably something people seek and hold on to even stronger, given the dreary conditions of the job market and such. You can fly across the country for a mere fraction of what you make and if you’re lucky enough to live in what’s referred to as a Hub-city (where airlines house their planes or make frequent stops) then it’s even more affordable. If someone lived in New York City or Chicago and wanted to date someone in Atlanta or Dallas…those are all hub-cities and probably have business daily flights through the week and although the prices may go up on the weekends, it’s probably still not quite as expensive as one of those places to a smaller city, say Cleveland or Tucson. Plus, there’s always those trusty frequent flier miles!
Now, when you take into account the meteoric success of online dating – you take the potential of long distance relationships to a whole ‘nother level. Online dating sites, like Match.com, eHarmony.com and PlentyofFish.com have made it possible to meet people who you might not have met otherwise. Match.com has these very stigma-smashing commericals that tell people it’s “Okay to look” and boast that 1 out of 5 people meet through online dating. I’m sure many of us probably have friends or friends of friends or co-workers who’ve met online. Some of us may have even heard the occasional story about two people meeting…and emails turn into texting, which turns into phone conversations…that leads to an eventual meeting. I myself, have a best friend who met a girl at a work conference over 1,000 miles away. He lived in Northern Indiana, but worked in Chicago and she lived in Atlanta – ironically, two of the largest “hub-cities”. They texted a few times, then it turned into 5 hour long phone conversations…and they were about 28 and 30 at the time, so we’re not just talking about two teeny-boppers here.
I encouraged him after one too many long phone conversations (with her) that I could handle, you know, with intruding on our guy time and all 
that the next time they got on the phone on a Friday night that they both should just get in the car and start to drive…and by the end of their conversation it would still be at about the same time they normally hang up, only this time they’d be in the same place and could check into a hotel somewhere. Separate rooms of course. Then wake up the next day and actually hang out, instead of repeating that same thing both Saturday and Sunday. About two weeks later I called him on a Friday after I had left a party and she answered the phone. They’d taken my advice!
Next thing I know, she had flown up to Chicago a couple of Fridays later and I got us all Cubs tickets. That’s when I had found out that she ironically had some Chicago ties. So naturally, I reminded her of how they both made good money, lived in hub-cities and had no major things tying them down and to just relax and see where it took them. Anyway, I’ll fast forward to the end. A few years later – this past Fall, I was the bestman in their wedding. It was incredible. It’s been almost a year and they’re still doing great. So, the moral of the story is – you just never know, long distance relationships could really work and sometimes, they do.
Contributed by Kenny Davis, Founder of AskEachOther.com, America’s #1 Social Voting site