Relationships. They can be messy, and they can be hard to maintain.

Our entire lives we are surrounded by relationships. We are raised through them, and we are taught to seek the perfect one.

Finding that "perfect" one, though, is harder than the romantic comedies make it seem.

After years of bad luck, and some serious dodged bullets, I somehow managed to find the wonderful man that is my current boyfriend, Christian.

Christian and I had been friends for years before we finally figured out we should be together. It started with dates once every two weeks, and progressed into me driving two hours home every single weekend just to see him for one minute.

If we're being honest, I don't remember much of the first few months together. I would only come home every few weeks, and our entire communication was primarily through texts. We were trying to figure out how years of friendship could turn into a relationship, a relationship that could risk the friendship altogether.

But, winter break happened. Just a few months after we started dating long distance, we got the chance to see each other almost every day for an entire month. Over that month, everything changed.

We got the chance to get to know each other, to learn about each others lives and how we grew up, our hobbies, what we're passionate about, and what our futures should look like. Over that month, Christian singlehandedly became the best friend I'd ever had. He knew me better than anyone, and supported me even more.

Winter break came and went and life went on. Fast-forward to today, and we've been together a little over a year and a half. We are definitely not experts, but here's how my relationship changed after being together for over a year.

In the beginning, I was always too nervous to tell him too much. I was nervous to let anyone know me and give him the chance to break my heart. But, over time he showed me the person that he was, and I completely loved it. I knew we were hopeful and optimistic.

The "cupcake" phase.

But, after one year together it's only gotten better since then. We stopped being so nervous, and started being more open. We were more likely to talk about how we were feeling or what was going on. We were more okay with spending quality time together and not focusing on dates. We were just willing to be people, not some idea of perfection.

We don't fight more. In fact, we disagree and bicker less. We don't hate each other and just date because we've been together so long anyway. We don't fake our happiness on Instagram. We just spend time together as the two people we are- and it's as wonderful as it could ever be, until it gets better later on.

I believe that you can keep learning about someone and growing with them. I believe that love never has to fade.

I may be optimistic.

But, I may also be right.