I've been thinking about this, and I am curious...

[TaraMarie]

I HATE ABEING IN An LDR! Not that I don't love my fiancé with all my heart, but if we had any other way at the moment we would NOT be LD. Many people have posted that they've been in more than one LDR. I wonder why? Is there something that ATTRACTS you to a long distance relationship (I mean when you've had multiple, not just one). I really am curious about this.

[Harlequin]

For me, it's not so much that I'm attracted to one as it is I'm no longer afraid of them. Although they're not ideal, I'm not going to turn down someone just because they're too far away, because I know that LDRs can work, and they're something that I know I personally can do.

[lordpsymon]

I wasn't exactly looking for a long distance relationship. That's just how it worked out in the end. We're closing the gap in 74 days and we're planning to keep that gap closed.

[differentcountries]

This is my first LDR. I don't love being in a LDR, but it has got perks. Because we only dated a few days before I left Turkey, we basically fell in love online and we got to know very much about each other in those first few months, because all we did was talk! And I got creative, I started making him books and other stuff that I probably would never bother to do if we dated CD. I have discovered so much about myself and have gone to do new things, including doing international travel by myself which I hardly did before meeting him. I have started to learn a new language and find that I love it. I have taken up my studies because his damn job made me restless on visits! Even my husband wrote his study paper here. I have taken up my yoga practice when I am here. That being said, I am also super sick of having to travel this much to see him, it is costly and it disrupts my social life at home. Still, even if I have to continue to travel long into the future, I will do it. We hope that I will not have to travel in January as he will apply for visa to see me instead.

[snow]

When I was younger, depressed and was dealing with extremely low self-esteem among other things, long distance was easy. The only thing I had to do was be me despite my appearance and I had people who fell in love with me. My first boyfriend was 18 when I was 14 and I was so excited that I could enchant someone so much older than me, my second boyfriend was a friend of a friend I had met online and it was easy to be in a long distance relationship with him. All I had to do was come online every day and talk to him, then when we met, all I had to do was take the train for 2 hours and be with him for a weekend.

Then I met my fiance and I hated being long distance. Nothing about it was easy. I wanted to be with him ALL the time and not being with him was so much harder than not being with my past boyfriends. I feel like I was not emotionally involved in my past relationships and that's why I didn't mind having someone in a different country waiting for me, but now it's awful and I simply cannot wait to finally close the distance.

[R&R]

I've been in 4 - including my current SO. My first LDR was quite unexpected and we dated off and on for 6 years. He was in the military when we met and then did contracting for the military. I ended up visiting him in NY, PA, CA, HI and TX. We tried to close the distance, but never could quite make it work. I did enjoy all the traveling.

I find that personally, being in an LDR is almost ideal for me. I love my SO and enjoy our time together, but I crave time alone too. My friends joke that being in and LDR or with someone in the military is perfect for me because they are around just often enough and leave about the time I need a break. I have to be honest, though I am looking forward to closing the distance next year, I am a little nervous about being around him every day and me losing that time I get to myself. He works a lot, so it may end up being perfect.

[rhabdoviridae]

I've only been in the one I'm in, but we started out CD, became LD for my education, and will be CD again when I'm done. I can't imagine going into an LDR with someone I'd only been dating for a short while, let alone had never met. And I certainly couldn't imagine an LDR with no particular end in sight. I don't know how you all do it!

That being said, the situation has been good for our particular scenario because I can come home from school and focus on my studies. I don't have to worry about dividing my time between my husband and my studying, and this year on rotations I don't have to feel guilty for late nights/early mornings at school. Of course I'll be happy to have it all behind us, but in a way it has been for the best for my education/career.

[LovingAcrossTheAtlantic]

I've been in a few. Like 5 (most didnt last longer than a month).. But I think for me, it's because I live in a small town in southern US. And I am not too fond of it. And while some of the people here are great, I have a hard time finding people with similar interests. And so many of these people know everyone so if you date around here, everyone knows everything about your personal life.

I started dating online and long distance when I joined sites about things that interested me. I still hate being long distance, especially with my current bf but I feel I have found someone better suited for me than what I would have found in my area

[Dziubka]

It would have been close to impossible for any of the relationship I had in the past 7 years to not be long distance at some point. It might be different if you have a stable job that doesn't require or even allow you to move, but as someone in their early 20's who had just finished high school, I moved about once a year - to a different country or different city.
So both of my more serious relationships have been long distance for some time.
Did it attract me? No. I didn't like it. I'm not good at long distance relationships. I don't even like skypeing. I forget to send texts.
But what was the other option? Not getting into relationships at all? breaking up when I moved?

[Petals]

This LDR is my 3rd and though I have got better at dealing with the distance, it is still very HARD!! When I lived in Jamaica, I opened myself up to LDRs because I'm not fond of men in my culture. I met my SO a month before moving to the USA while we were just friends.

I didn't think I would ever be in a LDR after my LDR marriage failed, but here I am again. We are putting together application for fiance visa so we can close the distance asap because we want to start a family. Long distance relationship has no benefit to me now because I am that stage where I yearn to blend my life completely with someone else. I want to be glued to someone for a change lol. I don't need anymore space...anymore independence so to speak! I've had enough to last a lifetime.

LDR stands between me and my personal dream: a family. However, it has given me my soul mate, so we will make my other dreams come true!

[Ahava]

This is my first real long distance relationship. I was about 5 months long distance out of 3 years with my first serious boyfriend, but that was because I went to work as an au pair abroad. I have been chatting or writing with guys LD, but they weren't real relationships.

[FloridaLovesChicago]

This is my first. I've never loved and hated something so much in my life. Normally I wouldn't go this route, and that says a lot about how awesome my SO is. I'm a very independent person though so I know it's something I can handle but if I had to choose, I'd of course have him closer. The only thing that attracts me about an LDR is that it's such a wonderful way to really get to know someone. With my SO, everything was verbal only at first. I didn't know what he looked like until we had been friends online for over a year. That's about it though, for my "likes" on being in an LDR lol

[Courtney.Ray]

This is my first LDR and I would never do this again. It just sucks I love my boyfriend and don't wnat to let him go. I have been doing this for 2 years and it's so hard. I just hope one day soon I see light at the end of the tunnel. I would never do this and never wish this for a friend, family member or anyone'. It's so hard. More so for woman. We happen to be the emotional and hormonal one and it just sucks. I have my good days and my bad days. I wish this would go away. And my boyfriend that I love so much would just come home.

[MissingMyDutchLove]

As with many of you, this is my first LDR. I had a previous experience with a very very brief stint of long distance which was about a month. After that time, I knew I am not cut out for long distance. I hated every second of that month and said that I would never ever do it again. Fast forward about 8 months and my new SO and I had to make a decision: break up or give it a shot. There isn't a day that goes by that I am not thankful that I made the decision to give it a shot. There are days that I hate it so incredibly much, that I want these next few months to go by faster, or that I just feel like I can't do it anymore, but at the end of the day I'm thankful that he's mine no matter if we get to see each other every night or whether I don't get to see him for 7+ months. With that being said, I cannot wait to close the distance. I still am not cut out for an LDR, but my SO makes it incredibly easy. I think it really helps when you have someone so amazing and a set time that you're seeing each other next. Without that, I think I would have gone crazy long ago!

[Miasmata]

This is my first LDR and hopefully my last. I absolutely don't regret the decision to give it a try, that wasn't even up for debate - When we confessed that we were definitely in love with each other, I wasn't going to let that go just because I was afraid of an LDR. But it's definitely not something I'm cut out for, and I have huge respect for people who carry it on for years and years or who go through several LDRs. I really doubt I could do it that long, I just don't have the mental strength for it. My SO is very kind and comforting, and we do what we can to make the wait bearable, but I don't think I could ever become 100% used to this kind of relationship.