With today’s modern technology, it really seems like there’s nothing we humans can’t do. Students in high school may disagree heavily with this assumption. With this in mind comes a daunting topic: long-distance relationships.

As if high school relationships aren’t stressful enough, it becomes a whole different ball game when you throw some miles into the drama.  The term “long-distance” can be used to describe many different situations. It goes from the ever-so-famous two different colleges debacle to the going away to the army fiasco and everything in between.  

While these circumstances might be ideal for young students as individuals, it could mean serious hardships for a relationship between two different people.  Many seniors at MCHS are preparing themselves to experience this struggle firsthand after graduation in May of 2019.

Elyse Odell, a junior at MCHS, is currently experiencing a long-distance relationship.  She is with Alex Ross, who is a junior at a high school in southern Illinois. They’ve been together for 10 months as of Aug. 28.

“He doesn’t think he would want to be in the military.  We both plan on going to the junior colleges that we live by.  After that, we’d most likely go to different universities,” Odell said.  

Although they are lucky enough to live in the same state, they obviously do not see each other as much as they’d like to.  Ideally, every couple would be with the other as much as possible.

“We usually hang out at his house or out here.  Sometimes we will go see a movie. We only see each other about once a week, only on the weekends.  If one of us is busy on the weekend, we have to wait until the next weekend to see each other,” Odell said.

Like every love story, their relationship had to start somewhere.  The internet has opened up many positive doors for people, and these two lovebirds are no exception.

“We first became friends online.  He was good friends with one of my friends at the time.  We started talking, and here we are today,” Odell said.

Situations like this continue to prove that distance does make the heart grow fonder.  These times will test the strength built into the relationship. Couples who make it through these hardships can make it through anything.