because I haven't written anything optimistic in a while...

So recently, I read Sara Gruen's new book, Ape House. [Caution: this blog post may contain spoilers.] Gruen is the author of the book Water for Elephants, which I read and fell in love with last summer. I'd like to insert here that the film adaptation was really good, and also further proof that Robert Pattinson can be both attractive and a good actor, he really just needs to avoid vampire movies to do so.

Anyway, I was intrigued to read her next novel, which is about bonobos (most well known for being one of the few species that have sex recreationally.) I was excited because it made me think of my honors anthropology professor, Dr. Allard, who is probably one of my favorite professors I've had thus far. One of the main characters, John, is a reporter who follows the story of a language lab that gets blown up. In the story, his wife has to move across the country because she gets a job. At this point in the book, John worries and says to himself that long distance relationships never work out, everyone knows that.

Well.

At this point I got nervous, especially because the other main character was a woman (not his wife), and the book was set up in a way that John could have easily left his wife. So naturally, as the girl known among her friends as "the queen of long distance relationships," I did not put the book down until the end. I needed to know that his marriage would survive the distance.

Long distance is hard, I'd be the first to admit that. My boyfriend and I never live in the same place. His hometown is where I go to school, but he goes to Penn State. However, we've been happily together for almost 2 and half years. Still, there are moments of doubt, when I get scared that we won't be able to handle the distance. It scares me sometimes, because losing him would mean losing everything.

I was discussing my relationship with another friend the other day, and he told me that my boyfriend and I are going to make it. He said "you're the hope for the hopeless romantics, so don't you ever give up."

John didn't, and neither will I.

Thank you, Sara Gruen, for giving me an extra ounce of faith that the nearly impossible survival of long distance relationships is still, in fact, possible.