I have been with my significant other for almost five years (March 4, holla). Going into college, only a few people believed we would stay together. I mean, we've been together since the second semester of my freshman year in high school. So naturally, when he stayed at home because of his electrician apprenticeship, and I went away to college in another state, people seldom thought it would last. But, here's to the disbelievers, we've still around.
Just being in college, I see so many new blossoming relationships. Oh, how fondly I remember those days. And I kinda get jealous sometimes when I see all these people post a ton about their significant other on social media. When they all walk around holding hands and showing us all their public displays of affection. When they just are around one another 100 percent of the time.
Being in this relationship for so long, we still have the spark, but we are 300 miles away and we have lives other than each other. He works the 10-hour night shift, goes to his trade school and attends community college. I work during the day, am enrolled in 19 credits and am involved in extra-curricular activities. We don't have the time to talk on the phone for the six hours, like I saw on your Instagram post this afternoon. We don't have the time to FaceTime and take screenshots. We barely talk as it is with our conflicting schedules, at 6:45 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. for about five to 10 minutes.
But we also don't need to. When you've been with someone for so long, you don't need their approval over everything. You don't need to announce it to the world that you're with them. There's a certain stability that occurs at a point; they've seen you at your best (emotionally and physically) and at your worst and they still not only love you but want you. They want you to be by their side in any of your forms.
Right now we are focussing on our lives and what we need to do in order for the rest of it to fall into place. If I can't talk to him for a day, it won't matter when we can buy a house right when I graduate college. Being months away from one another strengthens our bond because we are figuring out who we are again. When you're with someone for a very long time you can sometimes lose yourself in that relationship. Going away to college gave me the freedom to reinvent myself. To be solely myself and not known as his girlfriend.
