DR. WALLACE: My boyfriend and I are in love and it feels wonderful. He means everything to me and I could never ask for a better person.

But one thing scares me. We are going to be attending different colleges next fall and that means we won't be able to see each other very much. I want him to be with me the rest of my life and he said he would wait for me. I will be attending Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, while he will be a student at the University of Chicago.

I'm really looking forward to attending Knox College because my father is a Knox graduate. Zack's parents did not attend college. That's why they want him to stay close to home. He really would like to attend Knox with me, but that won't happen.

Please give me your honest opinion. Do you think our love for each other can survive with us attending two different schools of higher learning? — Nameless, Chicago, Illinois suburb.

NAMELESS: Yes! True love overcomes all obstacles. You both will have ample time to be together during holiday and summer breaks. Fortunately, both Knox College and the University of Chicago are excellent schools, but consider yourself fortunate that you will be the one who will have a Knox degree.

YOU WILL FALL IN LOVE AGAIN

DR. WALLACE: I need your advice, and fast. I'm in love with a very special girl who lives in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The distance between us isn't the problem. It's the fact that she is marrying another guy.

Dr. Wallace, I love this girl with all of my heart. She is very special to me. What should I do? I thought she loved only me. — Mitch, Pine Bluff, Ark.

MITCH: If you love her with all your heart, wish her good luck and let her go. There is absolutely nothing else you can do.

Sorry, but we all must face heartbreak sometime in our lives, and there's never an easy way to deal with it. However, the route to your quickest recovery lies in acceptance and forgiveness. Any notion of crashing your true love's wedding, or bringing her to her senses and rescuing her from a humdrum life without you, is idle fantasy born of too many viewings of the 1960's mega-hit "The Graduate." She has made a decision and you must respect it. Failure to do so is pure selfishness.

Indeed, the only way we truly learn how to love is to have our hearts broken. Only in that way do we learn that the one we love is a separate person, fully independent of us, to be appreciated and savored. We realize then that love is an act of grace, not our entitlement. This is the lesson you must learn. It's a tough one, but when you learn it, your chances of success will be far greater the next time you fall in love, and you will!

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. E-mail him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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