Valentine’s Day is supposed to be about spending time with that one special person in your life and cuddling close together while listening to sappy love songs. For Kerissa Wright, senior, watching her boyfriend AJ Seals, 2009 KHS graduate, leave for the Navy on Feb. 13, the day before Valentine’s Day, was  more heart-wrenching than heart-warming. The couple spent the entire day together at his house where they “soaked the whole situation in.” Wright refused to go to the airport because she thought it would be too emotionally stressful. As soon as he got into the car and drove away she started crying uncontrollably.

“I had an attack. I was freaking out,” Wright said.
Other students have experienced the same feelings as Wright.
Josh Waite, junior, met his girlfriend, Shelby Buntin, at a camp in Oklahoma. She is now a freshman at Oklahoma University. Although it is not the most practical situation, Waite makes the best of it.

“It gives you space.” Waite said. “When you are together, it is even better.”
Amanda Trokey, senior, is in a relationship with a freshman, Steven Dybus, who graduated from Chaminade College Prep in 2010, and now attends Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio. The school is six hours and 20 minutes, or 378 miles away from home. The first day they met, he came up to the window of Tropical Moose, where she works, and asked for her number. Their relationship has lasted two years.

“It’s hard now, but wait and it will be easier,” Trokey said. “Don’t make irrational decisions. Decide whether it will work out.”
Both Waite and Trokey agreed since they do not get to see their partner, it is a good idea to give space but still communicate.
For Wright and Seals, it takes a lot of trust since he is so far away.
Wright and Seals met while she was a sophomore and he a senior through Facebook chatting. One thing led to another, and now they have been together for about a year and one-half. Seals volunteered for the Navy after graduation. He is currently stationed in Japan.
“You realize how much you mean to each other…and appreciate the little things,” Wright said.
To keep in touch, Wright and Seals e-mail throughout the day, Skype constantly, and he calls whenever he has time or is on the ship.
“I would not recommend  [long distance relationships],” Wright said. “I wish he was still here, but if they make you happy, then I wouldn’t say break up.”