Finding a relationship so early on in your developmental years is crucial to your identity. A lot of times, people will pass at the opportunity to stay with the person they're meant to be with simply because they are too young to realize their imminent feelings. I am proud to say I've been in a relationship forever with the one I love because we've been through everything! From sixth-grade graduation to high-school graduation, the awkwardness never ends (but it does get easier).
12. You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can't -- wait, you can probably pick your friend's nose.
After being so comfortable you forget about boundaries. I mean, who doesn't pick their nose in grade school? Now you have someone to do it with. OK, I know -- gross! Once you've found someone that doesn't mind your disgusting habits and might even join along with you, they are the one!
11. Playground cooties turning to kisses -- yuck!
The strange day you have your first kiss. Feeling someone else's warm, mushy face on yours brings back memories of being chased on the playground. Secretly, you both liked it because you did have a crush on each other. It was awkward, uncomfortable, but a new stage in life. You both hadn't experienced anything like it, so sharing the moment together was almost magical.
10. Acne, braces, and bad hygiene.
If you're lucky enough, you had all three! The only good part if you both were mutually gross, and maybe got to pick each other's new braces' color!
9. Having someone to tell your secrets to.
While everyone else in school had boyfriend and girlfriend drama, you two could sit back and watch everyone else run around trying to find someone to go to the eighth-grade dance with. Every secret I have ever had, I have told my boyfriend. He knows the most about me, and that doesn't scare me. If you can put all of your trust into another human being for so long, you know you've got something real.
8. Sitting in the theater with your parents.
Your first dates were sitting in a theater, holding hands under one of your sweatshirts so you wouldn't get caught. It's a strange transition -- you are constantly driven everywhere and rely on your parents to pick you up, and then it stops. Once one of you gets your license, it's a whole new world. Dates are no longer awkward, and you can sneak smooches in the car!
7. Oh God ... the puberty.
It's already awkward that you're so up close and personal with acne and trying to figure out the best way to hold hands without teachers seeing, and now this!? The hormones, emotions, and craziness. "Why am I crying?" I would shout at my mom. I didn't want a boy to see me like this! Luckily, my man (boy at the time) was there for the long haul. If you have someone that doesn't mind that you're still figuring out how everything works, he's a good guy. It's hard on both parties to be involved in this time frame, but support makes a relationship last.
6. Always having plans.
None of your friends are hanging out? That's OK, I have my guy to be with. From sixth grade on, whether your parents would drive you there or you would hang out after school, there's always plans. It eventually turns into only wanting to hang out with them, because they are the most fun. I remember everything from playing soccer in the yard to making snacks. There's a world of plans you can have when you have the imagination of sixth graders in love.
5. Knowing your future before everyone else does.
You freakin' know it. You know you're going to be together, without a doubt. People have been asking me whether I plan on marrying my boyfriend since we started dating because everyone else can see how compatible we are. It's almost like knowing you're set because you've found what makes you the happiest. Knowing you're the happiest you are at such a young age leads a strong and confident lifestyle. Which brings the next point:
4. Confidence.
I could pretty much do anything knowing that there is a boy out there who will love me no matter what. I would volunteer for dorky stuff in class and be as outgoing as I wanted to be, because someone was by my side doing it. We'd cringe at each other and make fun, but deep down we knew it was because there was no one else we wanted to be with.
3. There's never a time where he can't make you smile.
That's it. You know too much. He can make me smile with a snap of his fingers just from bringing up the time that I embarrassed myself five years ago! We have inside jokes from before we started to learn how to read, so he knows my soft spots. Also, it doesn't help that I know he never means to make me upset. I can't be rationally mad, even when he does something stupid! He just always ends up making me smile.
2. He knows what's going on in your head and agrees.
Aside from the normal "I don't understand females" conversation, we can match perfectly to any inside joke or funny situation going on around us. I know if he sees something funny, that he knows I also think that it's funny. He wants ice cream? I also want ice cream. Although we can't decide what to eat for dinner, we can have a conversation solely with our eyes and feel like we've been talking for hours.
1. You will never stop surprising each other.
Since I have been with my boyfriend, I can't think of a time where he has been predictable. He knows just how to make me smile and feel great about myself, even in his little successes. I can't wait to continue to watch each other grow up from the couple on the playground in sixth grade to graduating college together. It has been a journey. A long, fun, crazy, journey that I hope never ends.
