6 months ago I began dating a very sweet man. Yes, a man. He is seven years older than I am, but you wouldn’t be able to tell. After our relationship became official, I wanted to post it on Facebook. Of course, right? That’s how you seal the deal. However, as he was sitting next to me watching me pull up my settings, he said, “No, don’t do that.” I was crushed. Why are you ashamed of me? Why can’t the world know we are together? Who else is there?
After letting these thoughts run through my mind, I still couldn’t let it go. A few weeks later, I asked him why it mattered so much and he said, “ It’s a jinx. Every relationship I have had that was posted about on social media had failed. I don’t want our relationship to be like that. It’s our business.” Suddenly, my heart was filled with warmth. I honestly didn’t know what it was like to have a relationship where I wasn’t cramming it down my friends and families throats through an album of pictures of us at the beach, movies, etc.
As time went on it still bothered me a little. It made me insecure about if I was good enough, and it constantly made me think about how there was someone out there better for him than me. It tested how I looked at myself. The fact that our relationship was a secret to those that weren’t my close friends and my parents made me wonder if he really was ashamed of me.
Fast forward a few months and here we are. We are about to celebrate our 6 months and I have never been more happy to keep to myself. We definitely don’t have a perfect relationship so I am happy that we can go through our own struggles without bringing the drama to Facebook or any other social media platform. It is very comforting that we don’t even give other people the opportunity to put in their two cents. We are the only ones that matter. Him and I have a different kind of relationship that has a strong foundation of trust, and I feel as if having a secluded relationship really adds to that. He is a big part of me and this is probably one of the only times that I will tell him that he was right. I love our “secret” relationship.
I am not saying that all relationships that are posted all over social media turn out bad. I am just saying that for our relationship, it’s best to keep to ourselves We always have each others’ backs and appreciate that no one else can butt in on our personal relationship.