Not as easy as it seems.

It must be so hard!

Don't worry, he's moving back soon.

I wouldn't be able to do this...

These are probably three most common comments I got last year when people found out that I was in a long distance relationship. The time when Mr Magic will finally be within a commutable distance was presented to me as this absolutely fantastic time when finally everything will be in order.

And I am extremely thankful that he is close by now. But the past few months were not a fairy tale that everybody promised. We had many wonderful moments and grew closer together, but there were some hard times, particularly for me.

You see, I lived on my own for over a year, I was the master of all my time, I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. This worked for as long as we were on two different continents. But it doesn't work when you are 90 miles away and can actually visit each other at the weekends. I struggle with this, because I have my routines that never involved Mr Magic, they didn't need to. But now they do and it is a struggle for me. I like my independent life, but my selfishness stands in the way of us developing a more fulfilling relationship. I guess loving another person means giving up a little of your independence, maybe even a lot of it. I didn't anticipate it. I expected romantic dinners, long intimate conversations and I got a lot of those. But I've also got many more challenges.

It takes time to work things out. And new problem emerge that were not apparent when we could only Skype in the evening. How do you spend all this time together now? How do you communicate that you need some space for yourself? What do you do with annoying habits of your special other?

The relationship changes so much when you close the distance and I wish I was more prepared for it all. I didn't anticipate the struggles at all. Maybe it's partially because the media often sell us an idea of relationships as a series of romantic trips, candlelight dinners and doing everything together. But actually, relationships are proper hard work. Being with another person is hard. Totally worth it, but it requires commitment and openness to let a part of you go to make room for the one you love.

I feel that six months on I am getting into a flow of being close distance. But to all of you out there doing long distance, you know it's hard already, but once you are together it will also be hard. It's just being in a relationship for you.