I also reread your original post. Your concerns are right. I also wonder, since you are 17, are you planning on going to college? With the job situation right now, if both of you didn't get extra education, it would be very hard to even live together and share expenses. If you or both of you are going to college, then realistically it wouldn't be for 2 to 4 years. A long distance that long is probably not going to happen, you're both bound to meet somebody local and the pressure of being away.
If you neither of you are planning on getting more education, it's going to be an extremely hard life, unless you have a business setup or inheritence.