Letters to the Editor

I was very dismayed and frankly offended after reading Ilana Kaplan-Shain’s piece about long-distance relationships. I’m a senior, and have been dating the same girl since my junior year of high school in St. Louis, Missouri, where she now attends Washington University. We’ve outlasted three full years apart – one of those years while I was abroad – and we’re still together. I found Kaplan-Shain’s article to be extremely trite and patronizing – apparently everyone the author knows couldn’t seem to keep their hands off of the most readily available guy/girl.Long-distance relationships can work if you both recognize the sacrifices that have to be made. I’m not saying that it’s easy – far from it. In fact, a lot of the time it really sucks. But it isn’t impossible, and I think that that is a point that upperclassmen and freshmen alike should understand. I think Kaplan-Shain needs to get a little bit of perspective and realize that if you meet someone you really love, ditching them because you’re far away and want to get drunk and have sex with your lab partner is pretty sad.- Bryan PenningtonClass of 2005