Both parties should be clear on the boundaries of the relationship. Millicent meets Harry in high school. She falls madly in love with Harry the high school jock. Millicent  beautiful and brilliant graduates from high school one year after Harry who attended college close enough to her hometown that she was able to keep her claws into him. Millicent is accepted to a school on the East Coast and will only see Harry during the holidays and summer months when she isn’t traveling Europe. Millicent and Harry will have to ask some difficult questions. They will have to label their relationship. Are they dating, boyfriend, and girlfriend, limited to seeing only each other? What is the end goal? Do you plan to get married? There is nothing worst than being connected to someone when the right one comes along. (The characters in this example are fictitious and any similarity to real people is strictly coincidental.) 

There are thousands of songs that cover long distance relationships. Play them frequently. Absence truly makes the heart grow fonder. There are hundreds of things that you can do together even though you aren’t together physically. Get on the Internet and find out what they are. You should communicate daily. You will have to trust each other completely. Trust that the other party will tell you as soon as they decide that they are no longer happy with the long distance relationship or they have found someone to replace you. If you find yourself about to be replaced remember this age-old advice: 

A man can easily find a good woman to marry. It is more difficult for a black woman to find a good black man to marry. The more education that any woman obtains the smaller her pool of marriageable men becomes if she is looking for a man and one who is an equal. By equal I mean one who can speak the Queen’s English, has a comparable career and no criminal record. If you should get back in the hunt for a mate you should know the new definition of cute. 

As far as looks, every parent should have this conversation with his or her daughter and son. BS (Bachelor of Science) is cuter than a HSD (High School Diploma.) MA (Masters of Arts) is cuter than BS, and HSD. PHD (Doctor of Philosophy) is cuter than MA, BS and HSD; JD (Juris Doctorate) is cuter than PHD, MA and BS, and HS; DDS (Doctor of Dentistry) is cuter than JD, unless JD came from Harvard Law School, PHD, MA, BS and HSD. MD (Doctor of Medicine) is cuter than DDS, JD, PHD, MA, BS and HSD all combined together. This theory was developed by the parents who sent their daughters and sons to the Black Ivy League Schools: Morehouse College, Spelman College, Fisk University, Howard University, Hampton University, Tuskegee University, Dillard University and Bennett College. 

 In the words of my dad, “You must honor the chair whether it is sitting, walking or lying down.”