Surviving long-distance dating with someone that you met online requires a reality check.
In essence, you need to avoid getting caught up in how excited you are about this person and how they make you feel.
If you intend to get into a long-distance relationship with this person, you have to look back on your relationship history.
When you have dated people in the past, have you often had an issue with not being able to see them as often as you would like?
Perhaps this was a person who was often busy or had a lot of other responsibilities.
How did you feel whenever you would think about not having them around over the weekend as often as you would like?
How would you feel whenever you would watch them have to leave after not having spent anywhere near enough time with you over the weekend?
If you felt constantly despondent and upset over this, there is a good chance that you will be unable to survive long-distance dating with someone that you met online.
This person that you met online will not be there with you on a regular basis.
Depending on how far away from you they are, you would have to put out a lot of effort to coordinate a time that would work for the both of you to meet.
Oftentimes, plans that the both of you set in place for a physical meeting may have to be cancelled or rescheduled because one or the both of you were unable to follow through due to some unforeseen occurrence.
These are areas that you will have to strongly consider before determining whether you should start dating this person long distance.
Think through this first.
The long-distance relationships that often have the best chance of surviving are the ones where both parties involved have strongly considered the implications of what a long-distance relationship would be like.
They have thought about the likelihood that plans to meet up physically will have to be cancelled or rescheduled.
They have thought about the likelihood that even when a physical meeting occurs, they will not be able to spend as much time with each other as they would like.
They have thought about how not having someone around to give them constant affection will affect them in the long-distance relationship.
You need to think about all of this.
Look at your history in relationships as your guide.
This will often let you know what kind of tolerance you have.
When both parties start long-distance dating after having considered all of these highly crucial elements, they often have the highest likelihood of surviving.
If you have thought this through and still believe that you want to venture into long-distance dating with this person that you met online, have an end plan strongly set.
In other words, you have to have an honest conversation with this person and both agree on a timeline in which this long-distance dating, if it were to get serious, should transition into dating within the same space.
Given where your lives are at the moment, be realistic about when you both see this happening.
Set that date and make sure that you continuously remind each other of it as you date long distance.
This will keep that end date constantly at the forefront of your minds and also motivate you both to work towards it.
A long-distance relationship has a much stronger chance of surviving when it feels like there is an actual destination.