As I write this, school has started up again, and many college students have just left their high school sweethearts and/or summer flings behind as they return to halls of academia.

Not to mention the Internet has taken the place of the local pub or tavern for many people these days. More often than not, the guy who "virtually" sits down next to you and says "Hi, my name is - " may live two or even three time zones away.

Suddenly, you're not only in a relationship, you're in a long-distance relationship. The big question is, will it make you happy?

For me, the answer was a very emphatic "no." When my husband Alex and I first became a couple in the fall of 1999, the first two months of our relationship was 100% long-distance - he was in Missouri finishing graduate school and I was living in Washington DC - with the long distance telephone bills to prove it! Fortunately for us, we'd been friends for almost ten years before the relationship changed, so we had a lot of shared history as a foundation for the romance.

The original plan was that we would spend Christmas together at my parents' home (they lived about two hours away from Alex), then visit each other in August, unless he got a full-time professor job by then. If he did, I'd pack up and move to wherever his new job was.

So much for original plans. I flew home on December 30 to avoid any potential Y2K mess (remember Y2K?), and by New Year's Day I knew I couldn't wait until August to see him again. By February 1, I had packed up everything I had, including two unhappy cats, and moved about a thousand miles due west. I have never once regretted this decision.

For me, if I am in a relationship with someone, and it's serious, then emails, text messages and high telephone bills just aren't enough! I want to see them, I want them there in case I need a shoulder to cry on, I want to share my day, every day, with them. I want to be able to touch them. Maybe I'm just selfish. I am definitely high maintenance, and consequently I am a lousy candidate for a long-distance romance!

On the other hand, for some people, limited time together and primarily technological contact is fine - at least for a while. I mean, just because the two of you don't live in the same state now doesn't mean that you don't have plans to do so in the future - when you graduate, for instance, or when he finds a job in his field near you. If your school or his work takes up so much of your time that you wouldn't spend much more time together if you did happen to live in the same zip code, then maybe long-distance is the best way to go. At least there won't be any day-to-day expectations of "quality time" that one or both of you just don't have to give. I also understand from talking to people who do live a fair distance away from their beloved that the time they do spend together is just that much more wonderful and intimate and communicative than it would be if they saw each other every day, or even every week. I guess they're low maintenance or something!

If this sounds good to you, and your sweetie agrees, then you two would probably be very happy in at least a temporary long-distance relationship. After all, military families and the wives and children of over-the-road truck drivers live in one every day. My father-in-law was in the army, and served three tours of duty in Vietnam. Despite these "temporary" separations, he and my mother-in-law had an awesome 50-year marriage. He died about four years ago, and my mother-in-law still cries herself to sleep every night.

Love really does make the distance shorter, doesn't it?