Dear Reporter,
After reading through Evan Stark’s “The Difficulties of Distance” article in the latest issue of the Reporter, my fiancé Summer and I felt the need to share our own experience on the topic.

 It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that a romantic relationship involves real effort and work from both sides, but to claim a long-distance high school sweetheart relationship is “doomed to die a depressing death” is one of the most pessimistic and hopeless views you could possibly adopt.

 We started dating during my senior year of high school and naturally had to face the reality that I was going five hours away to RIT at the end of the summer. But, you know what? We didn’t quit, even though most of the people around us said it wouldn’t work out, or it wouldn’t last.

 For two years our relationship was long-distance, and it tested us. We talked to each other every day for about an hour and a half and visited when we could. Claiming you “will not have enough time” shows a lack of caring about your relationship (and an inability to manage your time). We didn’t skip on hanging out with friends, going to the movies, or whatever shenanigans we got into; we just rolled with our schedules and made it work.

 Now we’re both at RIT, and it’s safe to say our relationship has become stronger because of our long-distance situation. We have been happily together for almost four and a half years (and engaged for over a year) and have proven everyone wrong along the way.

 We won’t deny that sometimes a long-distance relationship can be tough, but if you feel you should throw it all away, then you probably didn’t have much of a relationship to start with.

Ryan Ammerman & Summer Naugle

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