Okay girls, here's the thing. My boyfriend will kill me for saying this, but I actually like being in a long-distance relationship.

No, really, I'm serious. And I'll tell you why.

Nick and I had been dating for about a year when we graduated from high school. We had talked about going to school, but we had never talked about going to school together.

In fact, I don't think we applied to any of the same schools at all.

This, to me anyway, seems like a really good thing. Nick and I wanted completely different things out of college. I

I was looking for a big school; sometimes I think Nick was looking to do high school all over again. Nick is majoring in chemical engineering; I'm double majoring in journalism and English.

If we had tried to go to college together, one of us would have had to sacrifice one of the main things we were looking for in a college education.

And I think that's one of the stupidest things partners can do to themselves.

Invariably, someone will be incredibly unhappy with the situation. When one half of a couple is unhappy, that usually leads to a fairly quick parting of ways.

And that leaves someone stuck at a school that they didn't pick in the first place. I really wasn't looking for that at all.

So, with a lot of prompting and encouraging from my mother, we didn't even try to go to school together. After a great summer together, we parted ways to attend schools about three hours apart from each other.

It seemed like three light years.

When we were freshmen, cell phones weren't yet popular, and on-campus phone rates were crazy.

Because of this, we rarely got to talk to each other, and after a year of constant togetherness, that was a little hard to swallow.

It didn't take too long until we were both miserable and thinking about a transfer.

See, we were down enough to think that we couldn't handle being apart, and we were sad enough to forget that we hated absolutely everything about each other's schools.

Thankfully, my roommate at the time stepped in to point out that we were being ridiculous. I still loved Penn State; it was my boyfriend that I missed. But that was no reason for me to give up a great thing, on either end.

This is where the good part comes in.

Gloria Steinem once said that a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. And I think that's entirely the point.

But, to quote an earlier column by Daily Collegian Metro Editor Elly Spinweber, sometimes fish decide that they really want that bicycle, after all. They grow to love their bicycles, and they want their bicycles to be at their beck and call at all times.This is where the whole long-distance thing comes in.

Over the past two years, Nick and I have figured out every possible shortcut, and we can make the trip between schools in about two hours. Because of this, I can see him virtually whenever I want to. If I ever really need him around, he's here in a flash. On the same note, I can be there if he's having problems.

We love to surprise each other at random times when the other person is completely unprepared for a visit.

Thanks to the great influx of cell phones, I have 2000 free minutes to talk to Nick every month. That means I can talk to him whenever I want.

So, he's there when I need him. The thing is, I have come to realize that I don't actually need my boyfriend (sorry, sweetheart). But I do want him in my life. And being in a long-distance relationship works perfectly in our situation.

As compared to all of my other friends who are involved in relationships up here at school, I can have girls' night out anytime I want.

I don't have to worry about checking in, or making enough time for him when I'm busy with school or work. It doesn't take too long to make a phone call and keep up on each other, but when things start getting crazy at the end of the semester, I don't have to worry about trying to find the perfect balance between school and Nick.

In the same respect, Nick doesn't have to worry about spending too much time with the guys.

We both have unlimited free time, and we don't have to worry about not making enough time to be with each other.

Yes, being apart sucks, and I wish that we could be together all the time. But I'm not willing to give up everything that I love here to go somewhere else.

So, hang in there, and don't start thinking about leaving. The whole long-distance thing can work out pretty well.