My pre-Thanksgiving Genderal Interest column at Jezebel: Technology Can’t Stop the Turkey Drop. It begins:
There may be tears around the dinner table tomorrow; as any campus psychologist can tell you, Thanksgiving is “turkey drop” time. The term famously refers to the holiday break-up, when college students who’ve been in long-distance relationships return home and end things with their sweethearts. The stereotypical “turkey dropper” is a college freshman whose boyfriend or girlfriend is still in high school, attending another college, or not in school at all. Come late November, he or she has spent two or three months marinating in a new environment, has met new people, perhaps had a hook-up (or fallen for someone new). Summer’s starry-eyed promise to “make it work, no matter what” has become late autumn’s “I think it’s time we took a break.”
The lesson is this: if you have someone, hold onto him/her, even if you have many a mile between you. Don’t throw something good away on the oft-incorrect assumption that someone new will just fall into your lap.
You did a very good job with your article. We’re pretty close in age: my first year of college I was in a LDR and managed a 4.0GPA while my room mates were involved in parties, dating, and more parties. I was also a real bastard to pretty much everyone, grumpy all the time, and very unhappy. My sweetie waited until after the prom to dump me, however, so we made it beyond the “turkey drop,” but we both would have been better off if it had happened sooner, good GPA notwithstanding. In that, I disagree with your first commenter.
Flash forward a lot of years, and I’m in an LDR again. The difference this time, in addition to all the tech you mentioned in your article, is that I’m no longer monogamous. My current relationship has survived through moves and other changes, for over half a decade. The tech helps a lot, a flexible travel schedule, and a realization that there is more to the relationship than sexual exclusivity. Oh, yeah, and a quarter of a century of living helped a lot, too.