When I first started dating my boyfriend of four years, I was just days away from my junior year of high school. I'll be honest, I wasn't even really looking for a relationship, and I didn't really see our relationship going anywhere. In fact, I had planned on breaking up with him within a week's time. But, I'm very glad that I didn't.
Fast forward to four years later, and we both just started our junior year of college. And yes, we're still together. No, it hasn't always been easy. In fact, it's been far from easy. But, would I change our relationship? Absolutely not.
When we first started dating, we lived 30 minutes away from each other, and neither one of us had a car or driver's license. Of course, that wasn't easy. Six-ish months into our relationship, and his family moved closer. Like to the point where he lived about 15 minutes with traffic away. We got a job at the same theme park, in the same department. I ended up moving even closer to where he lived. All we worried about was when we would hang out around his football schedule.
Senior year was fun and games, until we graduated and both started working full time at other jobs. Our work schedule put a little bit of a strain on our relationship. But, the true test happened whenever he went off to college an hour and a half away. However, that ended up not working out for many reasons, and we ended up at the same school. But, then we had to deal with his parents resenting me because they thought he came back home for me, when that wasn't the case at all.
Our freshman year of college was alright. He got a job at a restaurant, and I got a job at our school. We still saw each other as often as we wanted to, without hardly anything getting in the way except for sometimes our work schedules, and his parents still resenting me for him coming home (if you couldn't tell, I don't have a great relationship with them).
Sophomore year of college hits, and things aren't as easy. His classes are harder, my classes are harder. I had an internship and two jobs, he was still working at the restaurant. We still made time for each other in the first semester. The second semester was where things got a little bit tougher for our relationship. Right at the beginning of the semester, he finally got his license and a car (something I still don't have), which prompted me to join a gym with him because I would finally have a ride to the gym. I went to the gym consistently for about a month, but I got really, really overwhelmed with the classes I was taking, and I had to cut back. He got way more into fitness and wellness and because of the hours he works, the amount of homework he has, and the time he had to go to bed to get the required amount of sleep he needed to feel good the next day, our time together during the week was very limited. We kept having the same reoccurring arguments, and it wasn't a good time in our relationship. But, we didn't break up. We worked through our problems.
This past summer was great, for the most part. Sure, we argued here and there, but that's normal. But, we did break up for a day over something stupid, and I'm glad we got back together. I started getting back into the gym again, though I didn't stay consistent with it, and we spent a lot of time together.
Now, we're two weeks into our junior year of college, and this semester is going to be a lot like the last one, where we don't get to see each other a lot. Yeah, it sucks. Especially when you live five minutes away, but only get to see each other on the weekends. But, school is important. Work is important. It's part of growing up. Our relationship has grown up a lot since we first started dating in high school.
I know I talked about all of the challenges we faced, and it sounds like we don't have a good relationship, but we do. Yes, we have our problems, but what couple doesn't? Despite the problems and arguments we might have, we still work through them and we've made a lot of memories in the last four years. We go to concerts, we go to different events around town, and we find fun things to go do around town. We still go on dates, that part has never changed. He's my best friend, and he's the only person (aside from my family) that hasn't left me and has been reliable in the last four years. He's seen so many of my 'best friends' come and go, but he's the only solid person that has stayed, and I'm so thankful that he has.
