Boyfriend and I decided to take a break, what has been you experience in this kind of situation?

Hey bros,

So my boyfriend and I have decided to take a break. We’ve been together for about a year and we’ve talked about it a couple times. We’re both incredibly busy him with his career and me with schoo and we’re only able to see each other about once a week. We have a very strong emotional relationship but our physical intimacy has been lacking. We both agree that if we were able to move in with each other things would be different, but that’s not an option right now. He lives in the next state, about 20ish miles away and its about an hour drive to see each other, so it can be difficult for us to get together. He’s never really embraced being single before and has always had short intervals between relationships. We both love each other very much, but with us being so young, (I’m 22 and he’s 23) he said that right now we shouldn’t be too worried about a relationship because we potentially have the rest of our lives. Because I feel unfulfilled physically and crave physical intimacy more than he is able to give (simply because we don’t have the time for each other right now) he suggested that I see other people, but I suggested that we take a break.

I suggested taking a break so that we are both able to see and talk to other people, so we can decide if this relationship that we have is what we both want. Life is complicated and messy I guess… We still talk to each other and are still going to spend time with each other when we can, but we are both going to see other people as well. I especially encourage him to see other people because he hasn’t taken the time to be single and spend time with other guys. He is my first ever boyfriend and my first serious relationship. I don’t think that we made a bad decision. If he falls for someone else, then I just think that our relationship was never meant to be. We had a really long, mature and deep discussion about this and we were both on the same page.

TLDR: My boyfriend and I have decided to take a break and see other people.

My question is, what has been your experience in taking a break? Did it work out well or did it end badly?