I'm hoping to get some input on my situation here.
I'm 25 and am finishing up my first year of professional school (a 4 year program). My final semester of college, I met this girl I had a class with and we slowly hit it off, to the point where we decided to keep in touch after graduating. We did, although we moved away from each other. She started a 4 year graduate school program in Florida (I took two years off before starting mine) the subsequent fall, while I moved back to Ohio where we're both from. We kept in touch quite a bit, via phone, online, etc. It became quite clear she was developing a significant crush on me, and I on her.
Anyway, so we'd flirt back and forth but nothing too much since we were both pretty far away. Her family moved down to Florida too, but she did come up to visit Ohio again the summer after she started grad school, and I got to see her then. Just hung out one night with some friends, nothing serious.
This past summer, right before I was about to start school again, she flew up to see me where I was living in New Jersey by then. We spent 4 or 5 days at the beach together, had a great time, pretty romantic, blah blah sensitive crap. We had sex several times as well. It was just an outstanding week in general, but she kept telling me she might become a little "distant" once she went back to Florida, because she was worried she'd become way too attached, which she was trying to avoid since I was beginning school in Virginia and she was headed back to Florida.
Ok so anyway, hopefully you're still reading. So I started up school this past fall and have been super busy, and she started her third year which has been crazy busy for her too, so while we still talk, it's not as frequent. I've dated a couple other girls since then, but nothing serious, and none of them really compare to this original girl to me. She gets me, we complement each other's personality great, etc. It's just something I've never experienced with a female before her.
She has just over a year left in school, and then her plans are up in the air. I'll be here in VA for another 3 years at least. I'm not entirely sure how she "feels" about me at the moment (whether she's moved on, or what) since we don't talk quite as frequently (so when we do, it's not as easy to bring something that heavy up in conversation). She's still playful and kinda flirty when we do talk, but I can't tell if that's just her being her in general.
Basically, I'm pretty hung up on her. Like I said, it's nothing like relationships I've had in the past (although this really isn't a "relationship", at least yet) . . . I feel something more, as lame as it sounds to hear myself say that. Back when we talked all the time (just prior to her coming to the beach with me) she would always tell me how she was falling for me, etc. Since her school program ramped things up big time at the start of this year, it's hard to tell if she still feels the same way, since she's extremely driven academically and thus school takes up more of her time.
I want to bring this up with her and discuss it, essentially flesh out the situation and find out if she still feels like she did before, and whether she's entertained the thought of a serious relationship between the two of us. The distance thing sucks, and I'm not sure how into the idea of a LDR she is . . . but that could potentially just be for a year, if she decided to move back north after graduation.
Any advice on how to approach her with this?
Edit: She's 24, by the way.