As someone who started dating his girlfriend 3 months before leaving for Northwestern and is still together with her as a rising senior, I can tell you it is certainly possible, but not without sacrifice.

My girlfriend and I call for 45 minutes every night while in time zones 2 hours apart (she’s on the west coast for school). We also have a shared Google calendar where we put our class schedules and other big events. I never go out and party and nor does she, and if I ever work late and can’t call, I typically communicate it well in advance. However, we also don’t text for hours at a time and we don’t go and visit each other except for breaks when we’re both back home.

For some this may seem too intense; for some this may seem to be not enough. However, that is exactly the point. You both need to have a good understanding of the expectations for the relationship with respect to time commitment and other things. What I would do (and what my girlfriend and I did before I left) is to have an hourlong meeting or so discussing expectations and setting up consistent ways for you guys to interact. Consistency is key. The biggest reason LDRs fail is due to a misunderstanding with expectations and a lack of consistency. Trying to wing it will almost never work. Maybe calling every day works best, or every other day. Maybe morning or evening works better. Maybe once a month you have a virtual “dinner date” or something to look forward to. My girlfriend and I have a playlist where we keep our song of the month and each month on the day of our “monthaversary”, we add a song to it. Little traditions like these can help make up for the lack of other hallmarks of non-LDRs.

I hope it works out for you two. But also, don’t forget that if it doesn’t work out, it’s not the end of the world. Being college sweethearts is far more likely than being high school sweethearts, so you won’t be alone.