5 Years and Counting!

College Chit Chat is a new segment I’ve created to talk about common situations and experiences we see throughout our college years. For those of you who don’t know, I have a boyfriend, named Alex, who has shaped my own personal college journey in ways that other situations and experiences never could have. That being said, this first post is all about my relationship with Alex throughout college (and high school) and what we’ve both learned along the way.

It’s our 5 year anniversary! 5 years y’all. That is so crazy because it genuinely feels like it’s been MAYBE a year. I don’t know how that is possible considering we have been dating officially for five years but we talked for nearly 8 months before we started dating so that makes it almost 6 years of this crazy love.

He is so wonderful. I cannot say enough about this man and all that he possesses/everything he has done for me and this relationship. So much growth has happened over the course of our 5-year love for each other. We are so not even close to perfect or done growing in our relationship but we wanted to share some tips that may help you out in your own relationships. Please understand that every couple is different and everyone has different values so if ours don’t align with yours (although these are very general tips) it is okay and I will not be offended if you do not agree!

We came up with these tips when we were driving back from our anniversary dinner on what has made us stick together for so many years!

1. Keep up the communication. We are strong believers in that you do not have to communicate all day every day but you do need to communicate all of the important events in your life. While our 16 year old selves texted things like “hey whats up” “nothing much what about you” “nothing really” “ok cool”…. our conversations don’t really look like this anymore. Of course we say good morning and we call or FaceTime to say goodnight, but because our daily lives are so busy (he is working in Dallas and I am a student teacher in Stillwater) we cannot communicate all day long. HOWEVER…and this is a big however, we tell each other all of the important things that happen each day and anything that we feel we want to share with each other. It is really important to know that your decisions do not only affect you anymore when you decide to date someone. You are now responsible for another person’s feelings and emotions. Every big change in your lives need to be communicated. One other random thing that we really do every day that neither of us really notice is just saying something we are thankful for about the other person. Recently I have been so thankful for the way that Alex asks me how my day is going every day at lunch. This just reminds me that even if I am having a rough morning, he is there to encourage me.

2. Suck it up. HAHAHA okay so this one was totally Alex’s idea but I could not agree more. What he meant when he said this was not at all a negative thing, but he is right. There are so many situations that you encounter now that you are sharing your life/experiences with someone else and sometimes you just have to bite your tongue and go along with it. Alex HATES taking pictures, but would you know that from my Instagram feed? Of course not because he does things that make me happy just for the sole reason that they make me happy. Do I love watching 5 different sports teams every weekend? Of course not (kind of…I don’t know as I was typing this I was like wait but I actually love all sports now because of him)…. but anyway you get the point. I do it for him because I love him.

3 Choose your battles. Man y’all this is a big one. And coming from a pretty stubborn gal…I do not like this one. You have GOT to choose your battles. Not everything is worth an argument and not everything is worth your stress. Alex really doesn’t struggle in this area because he is so easy going and calm. It’s not that I necessarily struggle in this area but women in general are going to be more nit-picky than men are. We are just perfecters in all areas of life and so we feel that if our relationship doesn’t match Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams from the Notebook than we (our guys) are doing something wrong. The reality is that we get to make our own reality. You get to choose what your relationship looks like and how your journey will go. If you are arguing all the time over the little things, those will eventually build up into bigger fights. I tell Alex exactly how I am feeling all of the time, and that works for us. If something is upsetting me, he knows. If he does something that I appreciate or that makes me happy, he knows. You just have to be open in your communication and you will have a better time deciding what is worth the argument and what is not.

One last thing that I want all the boys to hear… how you treat your woman is a direct reflection on how they will treat you and what their attitude will be like. Remember this.

There are so many things that we are going to continue to work on in our relationship and I cannot wait to see where God takes us next. We are blessed to love each other and to celebrate five years. Thank you for supporting us! We would be happy to write more about our crazy love story if you guys are interested in reading it!

Thanks for stopping by Simply Sav! Have a good rest of your week, and be kind to others.