College is a balancing act. Sometimes you find yourself majoring in Juggling as you coordinate schoolwork, social life and jobs.
Throw in finding the love of your life and making a long-lasting connection and you may scream, “Impossible.” But believe it or not, between the sleazy dance-floor hookups and drunken one-night stands, many people find real love during their days as undergrads and actually make it work.
How you may ask? It takes careful planning, organizing and a strong sense of communication and trust.
“Being at college you need to be able to really trust the person you're with,” said Brian Cordero, a junior at the University of Albany.
Many students who are in a relationship learn to balance school and love by multitasking.
“We try to have library dates so we can do homework but still be together,” said Jill Getchell, a sophomore at the University of New Hampshire.
It’s important not to let your schoolwork or your relationship take a backseat to one another, so making time to grab a quick dinner and then hit the books is a good way to ensure that you spend time with your significant other while still maintaining your hard-earned GPA.
But what about friends? Just because you’re in love doesn’t mean you have to totally ditch all your bros and/or hoes. There’s plenty of time during the weekend to spend with both your friends and your S.O. Try devoting one weekend night to friends, and one to your main squeeze.
“We make sure that I have my girl nights and he has his guy nights because it is important to see your friends and not isolate yourself within the relationship,” Getchell said.
Between all this multitasking and splitting up weekends there doesn’t seem to be any romance or to enjoy each other’s company. However, there are ways to have alone time and a little romance too.
“We'll make random special dates like cooking dinner but for anniversaries, birthdays and holidays we always tend to make time to do something special,” Cordero said.
Making a home-cooked meal is both romantic and a nice break from college food. So throw some spaghetti in a pot, put on your favorite movie and open up a bottle of wine because you’re in for some much-needed TLC. For birthdays or anniversaries, you can venture off-campus but if that’s not an option, make your own atmosphere by dressing up, lighting candles and setting the mood with music to make it an extra-special date.
Having a relationship in college definitely isn’t all roses in candy (it’s more like ramen and beer). But Balancing college life and a love life isn’t impossible it just takes some time-management, a careful balance and little bit of creativity.
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