After already being the mom of your friend group in high school and college, always watching out for them and only wanting what’s best for each and every one of them, that doesn’t change when you’re in a relationship. You either end up adopting another child or you find your “spouse.” I got lucky with a little bit of both.
In college, students like to stay up all hours of the night studying, playing video games, working out, working, or partying like there is no tomorrow. In my relationship, it’s not like that. We do some of those things, but according to our friends, we don’t act like college students…more like grandparents.
It’s normal for us to sleep in our own rooms (sometimes), take our own classes and study by ourselves or with our own friends, and work out in our own time. So our time together is better because we get to focus on each other and not anything else. We play childish games together like "MarioKart," we laugh excessively and talk about everything.
What makes us different than our other friends in relationships is that we brush our teeth and get into bed at 10 p.m. When we talk about the future, it’s not just what we want to do next weekend, but our wedding and what we plan on naming our children and puppies. When our friends decide to go to the bar at 12 a.m. on the weekends, we would rather go back to bed instead.
So what’s wrong with being a grandparent on a college campus? Spending every waking moment with your significant other leads to knowing every little detail about each other’s’ day and what they did and what they ate, when they went to the bathroom, etc. We get the opportunity to talk about those things at the end of the day, we just choose to talk over a late-night snack rather than about our meals that day. Going to the bar together or separate can lead to temptations and just lack of sleep. That's why we go to bed early.
Now I’m not saying other relationships aren’t successful because they go out on the weekends or take classes together. Every relationship is different. Try to see what your relationship is made of and embrace the time you have with each other. Take a moment to tell a funny joke, or a sad story, play a game together, or challenge each other in thumb wrestling. You will be amazed at the things you will learn and find out how much you love someone else’s laugh.
So after 18 months together, we enjoy staying up late at night talking about everything under the sun, the future (in full detail) like it’s going to be here tomorrow, and just take in the moments we share together. Occasionally, we “live it up” like college students, but would rather spend our weekends watching Netflix, "One Tree Hill," specifically.
