Being in a relationship your senior year of high school (or any year really) is an overflow of emotions. You experience the rollercoaster of happiness, sadness, and jealousy, with the end goal being that your final destination is love. Although that may not be the case for everyone, some people are quite lucky and get to experience what they think is true love is and get it confirmed when they end up with their high school sweethearts; thus making “forever and always” a reality. But how do you know the person you assume to be your forever and always is actually your forever? In my opinion, the answer to this question is whether you and your partner both feel that your relationship and love is strong enough to survive life after high school.
A lot of people say coming into college while in a relationship is pointless because “you won’t get the full college experience.” I, for one, disagree. Coming into college in a relationship is where your relationship is tested to see if you and your lover are actually endgame. You are placed in an entire new setting, with much more freedom, and you meet a lot more people. You face much harder challenges, whether it be academically or mentally, thus causing you to change how you are, but in the long run these changes are just helping you grow into the person you are becoming. Luckily, the one thing you won’t ever have to experience is loneliness. Through all of these tough times and exciting new adventures, you have your person right by your side.
I wasn’t sure what I was feeling. I was strongly convinced that it would be possible for me and my boyfriend to survive college together, yet that little percentage of fear was still there causing my head to just overthink and come up with stupid scenarios. What if we don’t make it? However, I knew that those scenarios were just make believe, and I knew more than anything that if something was to go wrong in college, it wouldn’t be our relationship.
We eagerly counted down the days of when we would be moving to Austin; we had so many plans and were excited to try new restaurants, explore new places, and just enjoy the college life together. As hyped as we were, we didn’t end up getting the experience that we wanted. I had become very antisocial and being around too many people gave me anxiety, I liked staying in my bubble were I felt safe. My boyfriend had been struggling in a few of his classes removing the free time we had because we both agreed that academics come first. Of course there was also many other minor obstacles that life threw our way, but luckily, we had each other.
He was my rock and I was his. Whenever I felt anxious and insecure, he was there to make me feel better. When the stress of being a college student was breaking either of us down, we were there for each other as the positive rays of sunshine and motivation that we badly needed. We were each other’s support systems, cheerleaders, lunch buddies, gym buddies, and best of all, each others forevers.
Late night food runs, endless study sessions, and, our favorite of all: many many sleepovers. We had many “firsts” together, tried out a good amount of food places, and adventured to a minimal, through very fun, amount of places around our new city. Although somedays weren’t as easy as others, the test of going to college together made our love much stronger and we are beyond grateful for one another. Not only did we both grow as individuals, but we grew as a couple. So no, we didn’t get what we had expected, we got something much better.
Year one proved to us that there was no need for doubts. This relationship was and is going to be forever and always.
So again, how do you know the person you are with is your forever and always? Simple. This is the person that you want to wake up to every day, the person that you want to kiss goodnight for the rest our your life. This is the person who makes your heart feel safe, the person who feels like home. All in all, you will know by experiencing life together and feeling the warmth in your heart that this is true love.