From 650 to 315.

Tonight is my last night at home in North Carolina; tomorrow I'm back on the plane(s) to my new home in Sarasota, Florida. So today, I made sure to make plans to see a couple of the friends I'd left behind. I went with a couple of them to see the movie, Going the Distance, and booooy was it great!

It was an accurate portrayal of what it's like to be in a long distance relationship. Of course, excluding the very unique ones with awesome, out-of-the-norm stories. It made me reflect on my own long distance relationship. I thought about all the problems Ben and I have had in the past that was because of distance. I thought of all the little things we tried to do to miss each other less, but to no avail. More importantly, I thought about how much I loved him no matter how impossible people said it would be.

I know there are hundreds, maybe thousands of couples out there that have it worse than we do; some people separated from their significant other by thousands upon thousands of miles, bodies of water, and timezones. But as I see it, distance is distance. We're all apart from the ones we love, separated by too many miles to see each other very often. I only see Ben once a year (this year I was lucky to see him twice), but you know what? That's just how it has to be.

And then the most amazing thing happened. I was accepted to Ringling College of Art and Design in Florida. This was the best news in the world to the girl who was previously 650 miles and 12 hours away from her boyfriend. I'm not going to lie, this was a big reason on why I applied to Ringling in the first place, but I'm happy I did. Ringling is my home now, and I'm completely in love with it. I'm not foreseeing a close to the distance anytime soon, but being in the same state is absolutely wonderful. After all, (SPOILER) that's how Going the Distance ended, right? The distance wasn't completely closed, but there was hope in at least being in the same state.

We're now only separated by roughly 300 miles (depending on what route you take), the distance cut right in half. Which is, ironically, about the same distance at the end of the movie. That's why I could relate to it so much. :] It's strange, though. Being in Florida makes me happy, but I've never felt further away from him. I feel like I still can't see him like I wanted to, and now it only hurts more because we're so close. But there's still much more hope than there ever was before. And in the end, that's all it comes down to - hope.

No amount of miles for any length of time will keep me from loving you, Ben. We WILL see the end.