long distance and waiting

My boyfriend just left for deployment in October and won’t be back until June (9mons). This is my first time ever going through deployment with him.

Unfortunately, we haven’t been doing too well. We have been going through a bit of a rough time outside of our relationship and decided to take some time and space apart from each other. My boyfriend is mainly wanting to take this break solely to better himself and not be so focused upon missing me and wondering what I’m doing. We still want to pick up where we left off when he gets back but I don’t know how to positively move forward with this change or what to think during these remaining months. Has this happened to anyone else? And how do you support him during this time? I’m planning to focus more upon bettering myself and finding where I stand in my career and school during this time.