Every high school couple that dates through senior year has had to sit down together and have the ill-fated talk: to stay together or not during college. If every couple’s conversation went like mine did, there was probably a lot of understanding and a lot of crying.
I started dating my high school sweetheart halfway through junior year. To the outside world, we mirrored the perfect teen TV couple: my girlfriend (who we will call M for privacy reasons) was the stereotypical popular jock who liked to party occasionally, while I was the quiet smart girl with good grades, curly hair, and big glasses. We were such the stereotypical teen romance that we even won Prom Queens senior year.
Though we were happy (more than happy) together, when we sat down to have our future talk, we both knew that long-distance was not for us. We had seen different couples go through long-distance, and we knew we did not want that. A genuine college experience was something we both wanted, which was not something we would get if we stayed together.
Other couples will know that the relationship shifts after setting an expiration date. M and I tried to make our time worthwhile and not focus on the ending; however, it was always in the back of our minds.
We thought that we could simply switch from lovers to best friends in an instant. During the relationship, M was already my best friend. However, this proved to be harder than we originally thought. We soon learned that time away from each other was the only way to salvage what we had. Though it is hard to not talk to my best friend, I would rather keep what we had than ruin it now trying to hold on to it.
So, maybe my high school relationship is not exactly stereotypical. The two lead lovers did not end up going to the same college or work through a long-distance relationship or magically skip the years apart to reconcile and fall in love again. My high school relationship ended just like the name intended: in high school.
Though I would be lying if I did not admit that a part of me is still holding onto the hope that M and I will meet again in five years and realize we are who we are exactly meant to be with