People never expect to be in a long distance relationship at any point in their life. Long distance relationships are hard in general but adding in the factor of college it may get a little harder. 

According to an article made by the “nypost.com” “long distance relationships have a 58% success rate, according to new research” found. 

Long distance relationships can work in college, but it relies upon the personalities and motivations of the individuals involved. 

Sophomore Alex McClellan, a Penn State Altoona student and athlete, has experience with being in a long distance relationship. Along with McClellan, his girlfriend Julia, who is also a sophomore goes to college at Lebanon Valley College. 

McClellan and his girlfriend have been together for quite some time.

“We have been dating for about a year and a half or 1.5-2 years I should say,” McClellan said.

Communication, according to McClellan, is a big factor in making long distance work while at separate colleges than his girlfriend.  

“Honestly, it is all about communication. We talk on a regular basis every day so that we still obtain that connection. It helps to act as a distraction that we are away from each other for a good amount of time because we still get to see each other face to face through facetime,” McClellan said. 

Both McClellan and his girlfriend participate in extracurricular activities which makes it harder to find time seeing each other at times. 

“We both are college atherosclerosis with her playing volleyball at LVC and me playing basketball here at PSUA. It does make it a little more difficult due to scheduling and athletic events but we try our best to make time for each other whenever we can even if it’s only in small amounts of time. It usually deals with talking in the morning of the day and trying to see when both of us are free to see each other,” McClellan said.

Finding time to spend with each other is based around McClellan and his girlfriends active schedules. 

“It varies based off of our schedules but we usually try to see each other at least once a month. Sometimes we get to see each other more than that,” McClellan said. 

Giving the relationship time is something that McClellan believes anyone in a long distance relationship should use as advice. 

“Give it time. It is going to be hard, but if it was easy then everyone would do it. To me it shows that you care about that person that much more if you’re willing to give that trust and distance to each other,” McClellan said.