10 things I learned moving in with a guy

On New Year’s Eve I was single. I went to a big hotel party with a big group of people, and I only knew a couple of them. Not too long after midnight, (but way after I started drinking), I saw a tall white guy doing tall white guy dance moves. It’s hard to resist a tall guy who’s 1000% committed to his mediocre dance moves. We talked, and danced. Three days later we were seeing each other exclusively. Three weeks later I was his girlfriend. The day after he asked me to be his girlfriend he told me he loved me. A couple of weeks after that, he asked me to move in with him. Last week I finished moving in with the dancing machine. For someone who hasn’t introduced a guy as her boyfriend since she was 16, this was fast, scary and sort of ridiculous. I hit a maturity milestone last week that I wasn’t expecting to hit for another 10 years. But I couldn’t be happier, and like any significant life event and decision, I learned a lot from it. The Truth About Honesty and Dishonesty Dan Schawbel Dan Schawbel Contributor Six Reasons Young Professionals Now Pursue Entrepreneurship Elisa Doucette Elisa Doucette Contributor Are Millennials Too Poor To Procreate? J. Maureen Henderson J. Maureen Henderson Contributor Here’s what I’ve learned: 1. You’re not giving up much People in the first half of their twenties often react to being in a relationship like the lost boys reacted when Wendy wanted to leave Neverland in Peter Pan. “WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE ALL THIS?” “All this” being the freedom to hit on and hook up with whomever of you want, not having to be accountable for your whereabouts, not having to constantly worry about how to combine your schedule with another person’s schedule. Why leave a life full of margaritas, girls nights, parties, and lots of guys for one guy? Because relationships are not the end, they are the beginning. Like Neverland, the glamours of singledom are a bit of lore, mixed with some reality that makes a great story. I’m not saying being single is bad. Quite the contrary, I was very happily single. But so much of what’s great when you’re single doesn’t end when you’re in a relationship. I still have margarita nights with my girlfriends. My boyfriend still has starcraft nights with his buddies. We still go out, go to parties, and have a great time. The difference between then, and now is that we go places together, because it’s more fun. Which is why when you’re with the right person, not seeing other people isn’t a sacrifice. It’s an adventure.