<human>: Could you distill the essence of the text into 1-3 sentences?

So let me start off by saying that I am now in a much better place than when this began about a week ago.  I have gotten a lot of solid advice from friends and family.

We, like all couples, have had our issues in the past.  It has always been small things however, never anything on the scale of cheating or violating one another's trust.  And we have never been afraid to talk things out or tell each other how we feel.  And we have always said that if one of us isn't happy, that we would never want to force the other to stay.

That being said, she dropped a bomb on me last week where she needs time and space to think about what she wants.  Now, out of the 7 years we have been together, roughly 5 have been long distance.  Not across the country long distance, but between 2-4 hours apart.  So we typically see one another once to twice a month minimum during the stretches where we are apart - with the occasional exception to this trend due to outside circumstances.  And we are currently living about 2 hours apart.  We have not lived together either, however the other two years we did live in the same small town.

We have still been talking regularly, however about the little things in life.  How our days are going, what's going on with other people in our lives, work, etc.  But she does not want to talk about us at the moment.  And as I'm sure you can imagine, that is all I want to talk about.

I've tried to stay strong - and so far have done a fairly good job I think (apart from the first day/night where I was not in a good place mentally).  I'm trying to let her have her time and space.  But every day is an internal struggle with myself.  And I know it's beyond my control and the ball is in her court, but this has been one of the longest and most difficult weeks in my life.

I guess I'm just looking for some support.  Thanks for reading.
<bot>: Girlfriend of seven years needs time and space; we're still together; she does not want to talk about us at the moment.