Recently my girlfriend of 2 and a half years asked if we could take a break for a month and get back together right after Christmas. I know that she's planning on going back to school sometime soon, and there are a lot of things going on in her life right now (the store she works at is dramatically increasing her hours for the holiday season, for instance). She assures me that this is in no way an attempt to break up with me, that she still loves me, and that it will make our relationship stronger. She even still wants to watch the new episode of Dexter every weekend over skype with me in the meantime. It seems innocent enough, and I want to believe her, but it's just so hard for me to think of this as a healthy thing. I feel like I've always been told that a break is the slow road to a break up. I want to believe that this isn't one of those cases, but I'm having trouble convincing myself. Am I freaking out over nothing or what?

I wouldn't blame you on the freaking out thing,like if my boyfriend said that I'd be upset but then again,she wants to still skype you and everything so I doubt she's planning on leaving you. You should tell her that you understand but also tell her EXACTLY how you feel and I'm sure she'd understand :)

It's okay I hope you will be back together but if you don't then that means she was lying to you but u don't need to be freaking out I'm sure u will get back together after x mas

Thanks for the advice guys! Telling her exactly how I feel was definitely the best advice to come from all this. Turns out there were some underlying issues I wasn't aware of. She didn't want to tell me because they weren't about me and she didn't want me to worry, but we wound up talking about them anyway, because I wound up worrying anyway, lol. Turns out it was mostly about several of her friends landing their dream jobs, while she hasn't even started school yet. She's insecure about her place in life right now. She wanted to take a break because we've never been apart for very long and she didn't know if she was actually happy with the way her life is right now, as an individual, or if all of her happiness is rooted in our relationship.