Cheating. If you haven't cheated yourself, or been cheated on, I'm sure you have at least one friend who has been in a cheating situation. We all know that cheating isn't good, yet we all can name person after person who has done it. Some of us have done it ourselves.

We typically associate cheating with the end of a relationship. We decide the relationship is unsalvagable because of the incident. But is that really the best choice to make?

I'm here to say no. I believe those who decide to cheat deserve a second chance.

Now, if they've cheated on you multiple times, I think that crosses the line. This is a second chance, not a third or tenth. When they decide to cheat on you more than once, they clearly didn't just slip up and make a decision they later regretted. They no longer value your relationship. But one mistake, no matter how big it is, is something worth forgiving. It's something worth working through.

People change. If they're willing to admit their infidelity, to show you how they're willing to work through this issue and make things better, they KNOW what they did wrong. Every relationship has its battles, and while cheating is a much larger battle, I think if two people love each other enough they can work through this. Things can be okay again.

We all make mistakes. Our toxic ex convinces us to come over, only to once again manipulate us into sleeping with them. We get too drunk at the bar and end up making out with someone we know we shouldn't. We fall to the temptation. I'm in no way trying to defend cheating or say that cheaters are in the right, but I think they deserve the opportunity to work through their mistakes with a partner who is willing to communicate and work with them. I don't think cheating should be the end of every relationship, instead, I think it should be used as the opportunity to put the couple's issues out on the table and work through them. Something is going wrong that caused the partner to cheat, and it needs to be addressed.

Let's cut the culture of telling our friends to dump their boyfriend because he hooked up with an old fling one night. Instead, let's help give our friends realistic advice on how to bring this up to her boyfriend, questions to ask them, and ways the two of them can work together to ensure this never happens again.