Kelli Kroepel | Opinion Co-Editor

Think back to high school. Are the couples you saw walking down the halls hand-in-hand still together today? Do you think the couples on campus will still be together five years from now? I recently read an article featured on USA TODAY that presented a study conducted through Facebook about the percentage of couples that went to the same high school or college. According to the study, about 15% of married couples are from the same high school and around 28% of married couples went to the same college. The study wasn’t specific, but I feel as though these figures would be even smaller if they were able to figure out if these couples had been dating since they were in high school or college, or if they got together later on. For example, my parents went to the same high school and were friends while growing up, but they didn’t become an official couple until their mid-twenties.

College couples have more of a fighting chance than high school couples, in my opinion. At the age of eighteen, you are technically an adult, but you’re not entirely developed. Your brain grows until your mid-twenties, and several people still go through physical changes after high school. However, it’s not just about the physical or mental changes you might go through. Things in your life will change you. The struggles you face in college and even after college have the potential to change who you are. It’s normal for couples to grow apart during these problematic stages in life.

Looking back to my high school days, I had a completely different view on relationships than I do now. Back then, I would’ve wanted to settle down at an earlier age, and I thought I had met the person I was going to spend the rest of my life with. Now, I don’t want to settle down until I’m well into my mid- to late-twenties, nor would I find myself to still be compatible with the person I considered my high school sweetheart.

I’m not a unique case either. I think many people would find themselves agreeing that their values and views have changed and that their new values would no longer mirror the values that their previous significant others have. In this day and age, I also think it’s more common for women to go to college to work towards creating a better future for themselves and not trying to get their “Mrs. Degree.” As time goes on, I think that these statistics will continue to drop as more people decide they want to establish careers prior to finding their lifelong partners.

Graphic by Grace Bodey