My partner and I are having a ceremony on July 4th (we're both women, and gay marriage is not legal in our state). We already figured out how to handle the inevitable awkwardness of terminology (we plan on referring to each other as "spouse" or "significant other," and if someone assume that's a "he" gently correcting them with "she").
Anyway, what I wanted feedback on is the issue of long distance marriage. I'm a recent grad school graduate and she has one more semester to finish up her degree, so in the fall she will be returning to a neighboring state to finish up classes. (With one semester left in her program, transferring was not really an option, or necessary, we felt.) We'll be spending the winter holidays together, obviously, and visiting as much as we can during those months, before moving to yet another state after her graduation.
I assured her that, especially these days, people are totally used to married college students and that no one would find it unusual that someone is temporarily living apart from their spouse because of that, or because of job concerns. But she is still nervous about how to handle questions about that, and is worried that it will seem "weird" to other people. Does anyone have any stories to share, or possible responses if awkwardness arises?
