Post Grad: Relationships

Most seniors at Lake Hamilton are looking forward to graduation. Finally, they’ll have freedom from parents, drama, high school, and… relationships? While some seniors will be jetting off to college, leaving nothing behind, many are saying goodbye to something very important: a relationship.

When people walk into college for the first time, it’s mainly overwhelming by all the changes. These are their first steps into adult hood. While they do have much more responsibility, they also have an abundance of freedom. Living alone, doing everything on their own time and conscience…it can be a blessing and a curse. For many students starting college, it’s a dire mistake walking into all the changes while in the middle of a monogamous relationship. Meeting new people, gaining newfound freedom? It can be very detrimental to any relationship. With all that freedom comes temptation and above all, stress. Temptation plus stress plus a relationship is a frightening math equation that almost never equals happily ever after.

            Now, while for some people college is the breaking point, for others it’s not so bad. If you’re college is only a few hours away from home or if you and your significant other have been apart before, college can almost be normal. Some couples need a break from each other by the end of high school, and therefore, college is like a breath of fresh air. Other couples just have such a strong bond, that nothing can faze them. It all depends on your personal relationship.

            Candace Boehm and Josh Ware have only been dating for around 2 months, but they are both dreading having to say goodbye at the end of this upcoming summer. “I don’t know what to think about it. I mean, I don’t know how things are going to end up. All I know is that come the end of summer, everything is going to change.” Josh, who will be attending UCA in the fall, is also unclear about what the future will bring to him and Candace. “I want to try and do the long distance thing. Since I’ll only be in Conway and I can be home on the weekends and during holidays, it shouldn’t be too hard, and I plan on putting in as much effort as needed to make this work, but I have no idea what college will be like, so I can’t be totally sure on how everything is going to play out.” There definitely is one thing that both Josh and Candace hit on the dot: only time will tell what’s going to happen.

            Although many seniors are so excited to the end of summer, when they can drive off to college, not everyone is looking forward to the day when they have to leave a part of their life behind them. High school is a seemingly easy place for relationship to flourish, but college is a world away. With more freedom to do what you want, a steady relationship where one person is back home, and one is away at college becomes harder and harder to maintain. All and all, there is only one defining factor in knowing what will happen to a long distance relationship, and that is time.