So you fell in love with your summer fling or high school sweetheart and now you’ve decided that you’re going to spend the next four years at a college over 100 miles from where you live.

You start to wonder should I be a smart human being and break off the relationship or should I pretend that time and distance does not exist?

Let’s face it. After looking past all of the skepticism, debates and ongoing arguments in respect to the importance of the physical aspect in a romantic relationship, they do matter.

Appearances, sex and physical contact is important when it comes down to the long run. Many people will argue and say it’s not and I don’t blame them. Of course it’s not always about the way a person looks and carries themselves, but it surely does play a huge factor in relationships.

This is exactly why I don’t believe long distance relationships will not last, especially in college. Now don’t get me wrong, there are a few out of the many that do work out in the future, but circumstances matter.

We often find ourselves believing that as long as the two hearts are in it for the long run, then the rest should come easy. If you’ve just started a long distance relationship, you won’t feel like there’s any distance between the two of you at all.

The phone calls become constant, the intensity of the flirting will be heightened and you’ll start to feel more in love with the person more now because of how much you’ll miss them.

Hold on to that feeling because it won’t last very long.

Slowly but surely, you won’t notice it right away but the calls will become less frequent. You’ll begin to meet new people and Blackboard will be sending you more notifications than your partner. Suddenly you’re at this point in your life where you don’t feel like you’re on the same page as your significant other.

Months have passed but you only just started noticing the emotional distance now. It has made you grow so far apart that there’s nothing more powerful that can bring you two back together.

I know many people refer back to the saying “Distance makes the heart grow fonder” when times are hard, but it’s 2016. People need to let that sappy quote out of their sight and become more realistic.

College is the place to experience, grow and figure out what’s best for you. If there’s a piece of you still lingering back home, you’ll never be able to fully grasp the true meaning of being alone in this huge new life of yours.

Last year, my friend came to me asking for advice. As an incoming first-year, she wasn’t sure if whether or not to continue her relationship with her high school sweetheart. Normally, I would have told her not to continue and advise her to experience college with the cleanest slate she possibly can.

But, the distance between her and her boyfriend would only be one and a half hours and they’d both have cars. I took circumstances into consideration and told her she should give it till Thanksgiving break.

A year later, we’re hiding in the back of Safeway because we don’t want to run into her same former boyfriend with his new girlfriend.

Safe to say, we’re not always right but you get the idea.

Rachel Reyes can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter.