<p>My girlfriend and I met in 2008 (I was 18, she was 17). We recently celebrated our 5th anniversary. She goes to school in Indiana and I go to school in California. It has been hard going through college and being apart, but we visit each other each winter and summer break by saving up money. </p>
<p>Bottom line is we’ve always been there for one another through difficult times. You have to be with someone you can depend on and trust. I was there for her through a couple of family deaths, her mother’s divorce, her financial problems, and her stress as a pre-med. </p>
<p>The main way we stay in touch is Skype. I didn’t even have a cell phone until late 2010. Now we text and call regularly. </p>
<p>You also gotta let your partner live their own life. It’s not as if my girlfriend is cooped up in her room all of the time. She holds positions of several clubs and is president of one she started herself, she is in a sorority that is always doing things, she is taking 18 units, she has a part-time job, and she also has an internship. She’s also working on her senior thesis. Out of all that she still has time to spend with me. You will make time to spend with your partner if they mean anything to you. </p>
<p>Did we grow up and become entirely different people? No, not really. Priorities change, people change, but they don’t change that much. Not in my experience. I’d say your wants change. She wanted to be a psychiatrist. I wanted to be a pharmacist, mathematician, physicist, and now investment banker. What I wanted to do with my life changed, not my personality.</p>