Everyone always says quality over quantity, but that seems to disappear when it comes to relationships.
My fiancé and I have only been together for about two years now. We started dating January 21st, 2017 and he asked me to marry him right as the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve that same year. I lost my high school friends over the engagement—they all told me it was way too soon and that I was making a mistake. They also said the same thing when I met him back in 2017. We met on the sidewalk in front of our college’s cafeteria, I invited him up to my room, we had sex, and he spent the night. The next day, the 21st, he asked me to be his girlfriend.
All my friends could see were the number of months we had been together. All they cared about was that I had only known him for about five hours before I lost my virginity to him. They didn’t care that my breath caught in my throat when he stopped me on the sidewalk. They didn’t care that my heart nearly exploded when he first held my hand. They didn’t care that he made me feel like I was important—like I was worthy of being alive and being loved.
What I’m tying to say is that there is no timeline for a relationship. There’s no set amount of time you should spend in each “stage”. If you’re happy, loved, and safe, there’s no reason to let other people ruin your love life. It isn’t there’s—it’s yours.