Heather Davis's Blog

Between the beautiful mountains, pristine forests, close-knit communities and incredible food, you'd have to drag me away kicking and screaming to get me out of Vermont for more than a few days. Unfortunately, my boyfriend Alden is tied to his job in Boston, so our relationship has always had to deal with us living in two different places. I'm not going to lie - navigating a not-so-long-distance (Vermont to Boston isn't that far, after all) has been tough, but Alden and I seem to have found a way to make it work.

While eventually one of us will have to reconsider his or her respective living arrangement (my money's on Alden) to progress the relationship any further, I've also discovered there are a few enjoyable advantages to being a part of a long distance relationship.

Perhaps the most significant benefit I've noticed is that communicating with your partner when you're separated by many miles allows you to really get to know each other. When you have to schedule specific times to talk either on a lunch break or in the evening, there isn't much time for empty chatter. As a result, I feel like I've discovered parts of Alden's personality that might have taken much longer to uncover through conventional dating.

For instance, I recall one conversation we had that lasted nearly two hours on Skype. We started off with the usual chit-chat - discussing our days at work and griping about this and that - but eventually the conversation evolved to an intense trip into our respective pasts. We talked about our favorite childhood memories, our experiences together in college, traveling, and even old relationships.

After what seemed like a few minutes, both of us realized that we had been talking for an hour and that it was well past nine o'clock. While it was late, neither of us wanted to cut the conversation short, so we fired up our respective Keurig® Vue™ brewers for a necessary caffeine fix. It was during this particular conversation that we learned about our mutual obsession with Barista Prima® Italian Roast. It's good to know that when we end up in the same place, we won't have to argue about which coffee we prefer best.

With our coffee brewed, we were ready to carry the conversation for another hour. After a few more trips to the Keurig, we were both feeling alert enough to watch a movie together. We synced up our well-worn copies of The Big Lebowski (a classic film by all standards) and bantered about our favorite lines from the movie.