Over the past two weeks I wrote a roommate article and a boyfriend article, and now I think it is about time to combine the two. We all know that dating someone in college is a lot different than any other time in your life. It's not high school anymore, so you're over all the pettiness of relationships, but you still aren't in the real world yet, which means eating pizza together at midnight is still an acceptable date. However, these past two years of being in a college relationship have made me realize something. You know the saying "when you date someone, you date their family, too?" Well, the saying is slightly different for us in college relationships. It goes a little more like "when you date someone, you date their roommates, too."

First of all, you are constantly around them. When my boyfriend asks me if I want to grab lunch, I say "Yep, Taylor and I will be there shortly!" At the bars, my boyfriend is always buying both my roommate and I drinks. We even hangout before the bars, just the three of us, sometimes. When I go to my boyfriend's, there are times where my boyfriend is studying, and I will just sit out in the living room and watch TV with his roommates. There have actually been multiple times where my boyfriend isn't even home at all, and I will be at his apartment with his roommates. On Valentine's Day, my boyfriend's roommate jokingly asked me, "So what are we all doing tonight?" and while he might have been kidding at the time, after dinner my boyfriend and I spent the rest of the night just hanging out and watching TV with his roommates. If you think you are ever going to escape the existence of roommates while in a relationship, think again. They are always around, and you will always be with them, so embrace it now. (Luckily my boyfriend and I both have the coolest roommates ever, so this isn't a problem.)

They will also see you at your worst. This past semester, I got the flu while at my boyfriend's apartment, and I have never been in worse shape in my life. My boyfriend was at work, and I couldn't leave to go back to my place because I was so weak. I would crawl from his bed to the bathroom every five minutes to puke; this routine stayed the same for the whole day. After witnessing this a couple of times, one of his roommates was like, "What the heck is going on?" thinking it was just a bad hangover. I told him I had the flu, and he instantly tried helping me, asking if I needed water or anything else. His other roommates asked how I was feeling throughout the day, too, even though I got multiple remarks on my scary looking appearance. While I would probably have been mortified if almost any other person saw me this way, for some reason it didn't bother me that my boyfriend's roommates saw me at my worst. They've seen me at my crabbiest (and the real MVP's are the ones who try to make me less crabby), they've seen me in the morning before makeup and a shower, and they've seen me at my most irrational. I would say that my boyfriend has the same experience, but living in a sorority house he isn't over much so my roommates haven't had this experience yet, but just wait until next year, girls.

You become WAY too comfortable around them. My boyfriend will burp in front of my roommates, swear in front of them, along with plenty of other things that he usually doesn't do with my other friends. One time when my roommate and I were too tired to walk home, we decided that we would just sleep at my boyfriends place, and my boyfriend instantly grabbed his pillow and slept on the couch to let both of us sleep in his bed, which I know he wouldn't do for just anyone. When I am at my boyfriend's apartment, there have been times where I have cried in front of my boyfriend's roommates, and I never do that in public. I will also walk into their rooms without permission, eat their food and steal the remote from them to choose what I want to watch on TV.

Last but not least, they take care of your significant other and love them when you aren't around. I know that my boyfriend appreciates that I have my roommates to gossip with, complain with and do things with so that I am not putting all of my burdens on him all the time. I love the fact that my boyfriend has his roommates to turn to and spend time with and to know that they will always be there for him. Just by knowing that these roommates want the best for my boyfriend, just as I do, you gain a mutual bond over that fact. My boyfriend and I constantly joke that we have more than one boyfriend/girlfriend because of each other's roommates, and while it might be a joke, it makes me smile. I like knowing that my boyfriend is close with my roommates and comfortable around them, and I know he feels the same way about me.