Romantic relationships can offer benefits to students such as emotional support and having a partner in crime when needed, but it can be difficult for students to find and maintain romantic relationships in college with the prevalent hookup culture that is a part of university campus life. Nurturing and allowing for growth in long term relationships also requires students to have the ability to manage their busy schedules in order to make additional time for romantic relationships. Here are some student’s thoughts on romantic relationships in college and how those who chose to have them maintain them.
“Being in a long term romantic relationship while going to college means you better have really good time management skills. When managing your time, time periods spent with your significant other should be taken into account. This is important to do, otherwise you might not have any time to spend with your significant other and they may feel neglected. Basically a relationship is like a wall, it’s strong and stable at first but if you don’t take the time to maintain it, eventually it’ll crack and crumble. You should have time periods to spend with your significant other. When spending time with your significant other, your college stuff shouldn’t be the only thing you’re talking about, you should pay attention to them. Your significant other may be under as much pressure as you are, but it’s no excuse to neglect the relationship. Effort from both of you is required.”
- Ali Anderson, Freshman Biology Major
“My personal situation is different from other people’s because I was in a long term relationship before I moved to Silver City. College put a strain on my relationship. It was difficult to manage work, school, friends, and my relationship. We were able to do so by talking to each other. Communication is the most important part in maintaining a relationship.”
- Dylan Kester, Graduate Student
“In my experience, it has definitely been hard to find a quality relationship in college. There are so much informal forms of communication such as texting, social media, dating apps. Most of them are more like hookup apps in my opinion. Everyone puts on this facade on social media, and then when you meet them in person it’s just awkward or they aren’t really what you’d expect them to be, physically and personality wise. Even people I’ve met on campus that I’ve tried to date just don’t really want to put in an effort. A lot of college students don’t want anything serious right now, and not everybody can be honest with you and tell you that up front. You just kind of end up wasting your time for a while until you realize you and the other person aren’t on the same page. It’s emotionally exhausting. You keep giving people chances and they keep disappointing you. I’m lucky to have found someone now that I didn’t meet through college or work or social media. It’s nice to just hang out and be weird and not have any crazy expectations.”
- Megan Saenz, Senior Sociology Major
“Well I’d have to frank I haven’t really had any type of romantic relationship well attending these last two years. Partly due to my studies and work I find myself to busy sometimes for that kind of stuff not saying it wouldn’t be nice as romance sparks a certain flame in life that’s hard to find elsewhere. I sometimes feel it’s hard to find and maintain that kind of relationship well in college but, I’ve seen plenty to know it’s possible. which gives me hope if I’m ever in or going into that phase of life.”
- Marco Ravelo, Sophomore Nursing Major
“Relationships can be difficult to maintain in college due to focusing on studies and a social life. I actually prefer to be single because it gives me more time to focus on myself.”
- Jill Smith, Graduate Student
