You always hear the term, "high school sweethearts," like it's this holy grail of relationships. Sure, high school sweethearts are cute and all, but what's way cooler than high school sweet hearts? College sweethearts! Don't believe me? I'm 200 percent positive you will, if you will if you stick with me for a moment. Here are a few reasons why Team College Sweethearts totally win over team high school sweethearts any day.
They didn't see you go through puberty.
Perhaps the best part of a college sweetheart, is that he or she never saw your prepubescent days, or the awkward transition from childhood to adulthood. Sure, your college arm candy can make fun of all the embarrassing #TBT pictures that your friends post of you, but they never really saw how pimply your face was every day of seventh grade, or your baby fat, or the rainbow rubber bands you put on your braces.
You can go on real dates
You can go on real dates to really cool places. None of that "double dates at fifteen, solo dates at sixteen" business. Your first date will not be getting dropped off at the bowling ally in your mom's minivan, or at least I certainly hope not. Going on cool, real dates, means really cool ways to bond.
The boys are (a little) more mature
Let it be known, I am in no way saying that college guys are mature...at all. But at least they don't still think the Japanese Cherry Bath & Body Works set is an acceptable Christmas present. Very rarely will you come across a high school boy who truly just "gets" women, but in college, they're getting there.
You never know who someone will be after graduation
If I have said it once, I have said it a million times: if I was still dating most of (all of) the guys I dated in high school today, boy would I be in some trouble. Why? Because everyone changes after high school graduation. You are a vastly different person than you were when you walked to get your diploma. Some people change for the better, others? Not so much. When you have a college sweetheart, they have done that major high school to college personality change already. It saves a million "who are you anymore?" arguments.
You can realistically think about the future
Sure, you can think about the future with your high school sweetheart, but when you are a teenager, you genuinely think that, "Oh we'll grow up and have three kids and two dogs and a picket fence house and good jobs" is going to be how your life really is. In college, neither of you can even try to kid yourselves into thinking that's how life will go. "Adulting" has beaten you down enough times by now that you know better than to think anything will actually go as planned. That being said, you can realistically think about your future together, and still plan for the "what if's" life will inevitably throw your way. What if we don't get those awesome jobs we thought we would? What if we need to look at alternate parenting options? What if one of us gets laid off? What if we have to move far away? You're too young to think about these things as a teen, but as an adult, you can start to picture and plan a realistic life, not a fantastical one.
Sure, there are those rare cases where couples just know at sixteen; and that truly is just something amazing. But more often than not, an effective relationship just cannot be carried from high school, to college, to adult life. So if you're a high schooler reading this, don't freak out that your seventeen and you haven't found the Noah to your Allie--there are much better things to come.
