On all college campuses, there are individuals in long distance relationships. Whether the couple is an hour drive or an airplane flight apart from one another, there are obstacles that come with maintaining this type of relationship. However, this couple has found that overcoming the difficulties of a long-distance relationship strengthen their bond and their love for one another.

Micah and Rebekah Breaux are the couple who persevered the distance between them. Rebekah Breaux is a graduate from Northwestern State University of Louisiana. During her time at NSU, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. In the meantime, Micah Breaux was working different jobs and attended Louisiana Delta Community College, with a major in secondary education with a concentration in social studies.

Their paths crossed in July 2021, about a year and a half before Rebekah’s graduation, and they have taken the same route ever since.

“My church puts on an event like a church conference each year, and Rebekah came to it,” said Micah Breaux. “On the last night of the conference, I walked up to her and that’s how we met.”

“He thought I was hot,” Rebekah Breaux added.

With Rebekah Breaux being from Natchitoches and a student at NSU, it just so happened she was attending his church event.

Micah Breaux is from a small town in Louisiana called Oak Grove which, according to him, is in the middle of nowhere and about 3 ½ hours away from NSU. Based on the relationship these two have, it seems their meeting was not coincidental but meant to happen. After they met, they began talking and had many more conversations from there.

“After three months of just talking, we knew we wanted to be with each other because we had a lot of the same interests, same outlooks on life and the same life goals,” Rebekah Breaux said. “Him majoring in education, too, is one of the things that got me interested because I was like, ‘oh, he’s smart’.”

The talks Micah and Rebekah Breaux had within the beginning of their relationship soon resulted in their first date.

“We went to Shreveport to go to Cane’s, Baskin-Robbins, the mall and then to my grandparents’ house for Micah to meet them,” Rebekah Breaux said.
Even before the first date, the two knew they were meant for each other. Now, Micah and Rebekah Breaux make this trip to Shreveport once a year.

Although dating would mean committing to a long-distance relationship, the Breaux’s knew their relationship was worth working for. With this, they pushed through the problems they faced due to the distance between Natchitoches and Oak Grove.

“The hardest thing was definitely the distance and the traveling,” Micah Breaux said.

The three-and-a half-hour drive alone was difficult to deal with, especially when the Breaux’s – like all long-distance couples – wanted to see each other every day. Even so, the weekends they did get to spend together were difficult.

“I wasn’t the greatest with time management as it was, so having to get assignments done while he was visiting me at NSU made it really hard to balance our relationship with college life,” Rebekah Breaux said. “Whenever he’d leave, I would be so upset because it would probably be two weeks before I saw him again.”

Despite the physical distance and the troubling emotions that came with it, the two remained inseparable. They communicated every day and spent the summers together. About a year after the couple started dating, Micah Breaux decided to take their relationship a little further.

“It was July of 2022; He took me to the same place that we met and made me turn around with my eyes closed,” Rebekah Breaux said. “When he said to turn back around, he was on one knee in the same church where we met for the first time.”

The Breaux’s went from long distance dating to engaged and planning their marriage. Although they had the motivation from their future marriage, the couple was still in a long-distance relationship. Being sure to balance and prioritize both their relationship along with work and schoolwork, Micah and Rebekah Breaux had a couple rituals.

“Every 2 weeks, we would see each other on the weekend,” Micah Breaux said. “Having that set schedule where we knew we were for sure going to see each other helped out a lot.”

In addition to this, Micah and Rebekah Breaux tried to call each other at 9 p.m. each night. They continued to do this even when they would run out of things to say to one another.
Within long distance relationships, planning when to communicate and coordinating visitations with one another is important. The Breaux’s determination to stick to their rituals helped their relationship to prosper.

After being engaged for six months and just a couple weeks after Rebekah Breaux’s graduation in December, the couple got married on Jan. 6, 2023. Although their long-distance relationship was difficult at the moment, it was worth pushing through. To Micah Breaux, being in a long-distance relationship seems to have strengthened their relationship.

“If we had lived about 15 minutes away from each other or so, I don’t know if I would have appreciated marriage as much as I do,” Micah Breaux said. “We’ve been married for over a year, but since we never got to see each other then, the feeling of getting to see her every day now is nice and hasn’t worn off.”

The distance between the couple when they were dating made moving in and living together even more special. Marriage was the reward for working through the difficulties of their long-distance relationship.

“The best part of marriage is just having someone that understands you all the time and has your back,” Rebekah Breaux said. “There’s this mutual feeling that your best friend is sleeping over with you every night.”

Despite already being best friends, they have a way to keep their marriage feeling like a fun sleepover.

“Every other Friday night is designated date night; That’s our night,” Micah Breaux said. “We’ll go out to eat somewhere or do something, and then we’ll come home and play board games.”

Not only is it the things they do together that keeps their marriage strong, but it is the personality traits that Micah and Rebekah Breaux value in each other.

“My husband is so funny; It is crazy how funny he is, and I think one of the things that keeps me rolling with him is he’s very, very quick-witted,” said Rebekah Breaux. “I was way too serious about everything, and he helped me to just tone it down, calm down and not care as much about everything; That’s what I love about him a lot.”

Similar to what Rebekah Breaux said, Micha Breaux shares his admiration towards his wife.
“She’s just very caring and that spills over into everything that she does; I appreciate that,” he said. “And she is very organized and good about getting things done, so she helps me to be more organized and disciplined about things.”

Both because he is a full-time student and needs these skills in general, Rebekah Breaux’s help means a lot to Micah Breaux. It is important for both partners in a married couple to build each other up, whether by motivating their partner or even encouraging a more lighthearted attitude.

Like many couples, the Breaux’s want nothing but happiness in their future.

“We just want a happy life,” Micah Breaux said.

“If there’s anything I could hope for, it’s just a peaceful marriage and a peaceful household for when we have kids,” Rebekah Breaux said. “And I hope to be an encouragement in our marriage for young couples to just make it through and not divorce after five, six or seven years.

Hoping to motivate and encourage other young couples, the Breaux’s share words of advice.

“One big piece of advice that somebody gave me for any kind of relationship, especially long distance too, is to have open communication about everything; Don’t leave any things out because you have to have brutally honest communication,” Micah Breaux said.

Adding on to what Micah Breaux said, Rebekah Breaux provides a suggestion.

“Don’t base your relationship with someone off of a Netflix movie or a Hallmark movie because those are sped up and so scripted; Real life is way more rewarding than just watching something, anyway,” Rebekah Breaux said.

This couple knows how it is to go from long distance talking, dating and engagement to being married and spending every day with one another.

“If you’re in a relationship and you want to get married to the person, then long distance is absolutely worth it and it will work out,” Micah Breaux said.

Love is something to be cherished. Most of the time, it takes effort to keep something so valuable. When one finds their person just as the Breaux’s found each other, they must overcome the hardships they face because the love and fun to be shared is worth it.

“I’ve got a really good one–A really, really good one,” Rebekah Breaux said.

“She did,” Micah Breaux joked.