Can love survive distance? A tricky and difficult question many couples may find themselves asking. Alexis Kowalczuk, a freshman and math major at the University of Kentucky, is one of them, and can attest that love can survive.

Students roam the halls of a high school in Louisville, Kowalczuk said that’s where she met her long-distance boyfriend and high school sweetheart, Luke Renfrow, freshman and baseball player at Kentucky Wesleyan. They met as freshmen in high school and Kowalczuk said their relationship bloomed out of friendship resulting in them dating junior year.

Thinking back to freshman year of high school, Kowalczuk said she remembers having a significant crush on Renfrow, however it wasn’t until junior year that they began getting to know one another. During the duration of junior year Kowalczuk said she reached out to him after a baseball game, congratulating him on a good game.

As they strengthened their relationship, Kowalczuk said their faith deepened simultaneously.

“I started going to church with him and his family and then all my friends started inviting me to all the Bible studies,” Kowalczuk said.

As they both made the daunting yet thrilling transition to college, Kowalczuk said that Renfrow’s decision to attend Eastern Kentucky University was at first based on baseball recruitment. However, when later offered a scholarship to attend Kentucky Wesleyan, he accepted and transferred from EKU. For Kowalczuk however, her decision to attend the University of Kentucky was always desired and plausible.

“For me, I always considered UK because it was a close distance from home, all of my friends and Luke, of course. I loved UK when I visited and toured it, and coincidentally, it was close to where he was going for school at the time,” Kowalczuk said.

Kowalczuk says that when she found out he was transferring 3 hours away to Kentucky Wesleyan from Eastern Kentucky, they both made sure to prioritize their relationship and faith. She said although their normal routine of going to mass together changed, they started a new tradition of weekly Bible studies at least twice a week over the phone. During the recent snow storm they even watched online mass together, Kowalczuk said.

Kowalczuk, originally from Chicago before moving to Louisville at age 10, says that their dynamics were quite different when they first started dating. However, sharing those pieces of their life over the years has been fun, Kowalczuk said.

“He’s always lived in Kentucky, so he always had a country life,” Kowalczuk said, “And I’ve taken him to the big city of Chicago to share that piece.”

Kowalczuk said that the most difficult aspect of being long distance is that between work, her studies and Christian Student Fellowship sometimes it’s hard to find quality conversation throughout the day with both being busy.

“So sometimes it’s hard for us to fit one another in our daily schedules, and then with that, to find meaningful conversations throughout the day,” Kowalczuk said.

Although, she said how it’s important to make sure they both know their relationship is a priority despite the distance.

Kowalczuk said something wise and clever, giving two pieces of advice to couples who may be battling the same situation as her.

“Don’t make them your whole life,” she said, “If that’s really your person, they’re going to be a consistent thing in your life. So don’t let that deter you from anything else. Just because I think it’s so important to also grow individually, and then also grow your relationship together.”

“Try to make things meaningful as much as you can. If you can call every night, try to make that your meaningful time,” Kowalczuk also said.

With their two year anniversary coming up in April, Kowalczuk, doted on her boyfriend saying, “He always finds the perfect thing to say. He also likes to bring up past dates or anything like that, just to remind me of the good things or the little memories.”

She also mentioned the beautiful scrapbook she made before they began their journey of long distance saying, “I would flip through the entire scrapbook probably thirty minutes a day, reminding myself why we’re doing it.”

While long distance has its challenges, Kowalczuk said,”It’s nice having a person you know you can rely on to reassure you when you aren’t having a good day. I know I want to be that person for him too.” She continued by saying, “We try to pray as much as we can together and even separately.”

“Once you see him it’s all worth it,” Kowalczuk said, even agreeing that while long-distance dating poses its challenges, distance does make the heart grow fonder.