My husband and I have been together for 10 years from the time we first started dating. Two of those years were long distance. If your relationship is strong enough, it can work.

When my boyfriend and I first started dating, I moved a few states away for a few weeks for an internship. That sucked because we hadn't really been dating that long, but we talked every day and he came to visit me halfway through. For the majority of our relationship I was in my senior year in college a state away from him and we only got to see each other on the weekends, but that really didn't even feel long distance to me. Then, after we were dating for over a year he moved across the country and it's been this way for almost 3 months. It's been really hard, but it can work so long as you communicate and are honest with one another. Thankfully, he's moving back here in a couple of weeks and we're going to be moving in together, but I think we could go longer as long distance if we needed to. If you have the dedication to one another to make it work, you will.

My husband is in the military and every year that we have been married, he has been deployed for at least 6 months. I consider it long distance because people truly do change in that period of time.
Independence sky rockets because you don't have a choice. However, we make it work my emailing each other everyday. We don't have the benefit of phone calls all the time, so hearing his voice and seeing his face is like Christmas to me.