COLUMN: Difference in age relationships aren't all bad
Most college seniors don't date high school seniors, but I guess I'm the exception.
My boyfriend and I met during the summer of 2010 while I was working an internship back home and staying with my parents. We went out to dinner with a couple mutual friends, ran into each other at a skatepark and started dating a few weeks afterward.
The age-exchange was kind of awkward.
"By the way, how old are you?"
"Seventeen, why? How old are you?"
"Er… almost 21."
But, we liked each other enough and stuck with it. Now, I'm a super senior here at Central Michigan University, and he just started his freshman year at the University of Toledo, which makes our relationship long-distance as well.
In fact, our entire relationship has been long distance save that summer we met, and a week of Christmas break. But of course, that tends to happen when you date someone enrolled at the same high school you graduated from four years prior, which also happens to be a few hours away from your college.
In addition to the distance, I get to deal with the jokes that come naturally when people find out about that three-year-and-some-odd-months age gap.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not offended by the jokes. I'll usually even jump in on them.
No, I'm not a pedophile. And no, it isn't illegal. Don't worry — we Googled that.
No, he doesn't sleep with a nightlight and no, I'm not going to date that 12-year-old on the swing set at the local park. He isn't my type anyway.
All jokes aside though, I love my relationship. My boyfriend is extraordinarily mature for his age. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't be dating him.
More mature than the 24-year-old pizza delivery guy I had a thing with, at least.
Granted, the age difference has a few downfalls.
I was too old to go to his senior prom (which wasn't entirely heartbreaking, considering I had skipped my own), and he had to take someone else.
He can't come out to the bar with my friends and I, but, I guess that means I'll always have a designated driver — at least for the next two and a half years, until he turns 21.
In all reality, it's just a relationship, regardless of the age difference or distance.
It all comes down to our compatibility, communication and the amount we love each other.
So, I'll take the heat for being a cougar if I can keep my boyfriend. It sounds like a fair trade to me.
