I finally have a date for my triumphant return: the 27th of August.

Knowing exactly when we’ll be together is a massive (expensive!) weight off both our minds. I think I smiled the whole day I bought my plane ticket. Relationships are hard enough without not being able to be together, and touch each other, and see each other laugh and cry. A healthy relationship requires physical contact, there’s no two ways about it. That’s what makes long distance relationships so hard. Especially when there’s an ocean between the two of you.

The last three months have been immensely difficult for both of us, and it’s seemed a little bleak at times, especially in the last month. The stress and constant lack of physical contact has caused stress, and unhappiness, and inevitably, some arguments. Knowing when we’ll be able to see each other again makes it all worth it; there’s an end in sight, and a great feeling of We Made It.

We haven’t actually made it yet, of course. It’s a long, hard road from here. But for the next three months, at least, it’s a road we can travel together.

And that makes us both unspeakably happy.