While stuck in the rainy day gloom that’s been looming over campus the past few days, binge watching my favorite chick flicks for hours on end, I got to thinking a lot about relationships. These thoughts were provoked by a line in the movie That Awkward Moment, after the insanely gorgeous ladies man, Jason (Zac Efron), screws up yet another relationship with his dream girl due to his fear of commitment.
“A relationship is being there for someone when they need it most; that’s all it is,” said Jason’s ‘dream girl.’ To some, this may be just another cheesy quote from a typical girl movie, but to me, it says a lot about how our generation views relationships.
Like Jason, many of us have lost sight of what it truly means to be in a relationship, whether that be with a significant other or a friend. It seems that we place more value on the “image” of our relationships than we do the actual meaning of them. We look to websites like Buzzfeed and Elite Daily to tell us what our boyfriend or girlfriend should be doing for us, whether we are dating a “man” or a “boy,” why it is better to be single in your twenties, or why settling down is the right move for you. These are actual names of actual articles found on these sites and it’s sad that our generation, especially us girls, are guilty of spending more time scrolling through them than we are actually experiencing the people we have around us.
A relationship is really simple: it’s being there for the people you love when they need you. However, we’re the ones that try to complicate them. It’s not about who has the hottest girlfriend or whose boyfriend leaves flowers on their doorstep. It’s not about how good you and your best friend look in that Instagram picture you just uploaded or, believe it or not, even the number of “likes” you’ve received.
A relationship is about who you turn to when you really need someone. It’s the girl who stays in with you on a Saturday night because you just lost a football game and you’re too upset to go out. It’s the boy who wipes your tears when you find you out didn’t land that dream internship and you feel as if you future is ruined. It’s your best friend who gets out of bed at 2 a.m. because that party just got shut down and you have no ride home. It’s about who picks you up when you’re down, who has your back, and who sees the potential in you when you can’t see it in yourself.
We’re college student; we’re young, but the relationships we form now and the memories we make will last a lifetime. Shut down that laptop and close that Instagram—they’ll always be there but the people around you won’t. Appreciate the people who appreciate you and be there for them when they need you. Love them. Cherish them. Hold them close. Because like the movie says, that’s really all it is.
