My ex-girlfriend and I broke up in January because she moved to the other side of the world for a 4-month PhD. She is now half-way through the 3rd year of the program. I didn’t move with her initially because I had just started my first job after leaving university and I needed to get a start on my career. I also wanted to make sure that by the time that she returned after her program that I would have a stable enough job and income to support her when she came back and was paying off student loans.

Our break up was entirely the distance and her being uncomfortable with maintaining a long-distance relationship any longer while she tried to finish her PhD. We still speak infrequently, but it’s very high level life updates.

I am still in love with her, and I still think she loves me. I don’t think it’s fair of me to try and get her back because I don’t want her to be even more stressed through the end of her program, and I am not interested in “getting back out there” since I still love her.

As I said, it’s been since January and I am trying to stay strong, but it’s really tough not being able to be with anyone emotionally and physically without either hurting her or ruining our potential to get back to where we were. I am worried that I am going to do something to ruin what I care about. What should I do?