In the game of life, love and dating do not always seem to go as planned.

Some college couples may experience the obstacles of sustaining a long distance relationship. Weekend visits and phone dates can be enough to keep some couples connected, while others might decide to call it quits.

When the time comes for high school students to leave for college, some may decide to end their relationships before leaving home. Others might attempt to continue the connection while apart.

At the end of Michelle Cross' (freshman-information sciences and technology) senior year of high school, the relationship she was involved in became more serious. Throughout the summer, the two decided to stay together once they left for college. She was cautious when making the decision, having already been involved in a long-distance relationship in the past.

"It is so hard to bridge the distance gap, and in order to make it work, it requires a lot of trust and communication between the two people who are in the relationship," she said.

After a few months of failed attempts to see each other, the two decided to end it and see other people.

"The relationship that I'm in now has worked a lot better than my long-distance one did," Cross said. "I'm a lot happier and not so stressed out all the time."

Some couples who meet while in college become separated as a result of post-graduation plans.

Nicole Dunn (graduate-media studies) experienced her relationship turning into long distance after three and a half years. Her boyfriend — now fiancé — moved to Verona, Italy in August.

"We communicate with letters, packages, e-mail, telephone and on (America Online) Instant Messenger," Dunn said. "For the first month, we talked twice a week, but since November, when we got engaged, we communicate every day."

Because her fiancé is overseas, they find it helpful to use calling cards. They also invested in Web cams for their computers so they have some way of seeing each other.

"Its really hard. We are both making sacrifices for each other," Dunn said. "We went from seeing each other every day to not at all."

Although some are able to make it, others find distance hard to overcome.

"It's like an AOL relationship. You can't see the person whenever you want to see them, when you need quality time together," said Kinta Palmer (freshman-administration of justice).