The Online Edition of the Annandale High School Newspaper.

The A-Blast

The Online Edition of the Annandale High School Newspaper.

The A-Blast

The Online Edition of the Annandale High School Newspaper.

The A-Blast

Senior couples say good-bye

In a few short days, seniors are going to be saying goodbye to all the things they love about high school, but few seniors are unwilling to let go of first love. When the excitement of graduation begins to fade and preparations for college begin, students in a relationship face a daunting decision, while uncertainty about the future increases. An unfulfilling goodbye cannot alleviate the pain of separating from a high school sweetheart. As the summer comes to an end, all the answers are undone. Only one final question remains: “now what?”

Seniors Natalie Ford and Alec Villafana, who have been dating for about three and a half years, are going to plan to stay together for as long as they can during college. Since Ford is attending East Carolina University, and Villafana is attending Mt. Olive College, they are only about two hours from one another, giving them hopes the short distance will work towards their advantage.

“I think it will work, because we aren’t that far away from each other and we are both going to make the effort; [however], it’s really upsetting that we have to leave each other,” Ford said. “The best we can do is try and make it work.”

However, some high school couples have no idea what will happen when the doors to high school close. Annie Nguyen and her boyfriend Robson De Souza have learned to enjoy what they have now and not dread the first year of college until they are in the situation. De Souza will be attending Virginia Tech while Nguyen attends VCU.

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“We’ve talked about what we would possibly do, but there’s never been a set answer,” Nguyen said. “If we do decide to stay together during college then we both know that it’ll be a tough challenge, for sure. The communication would have to be strong and the trust would have to be even stronger.”

While Nguyen’s fears are legitimate, making it work through college is not impossible. Class of ’10 graduates Hannah Flaherty and Ryan Schubert began dating on December 26 of their freshman year at AHS. Now, sophomores at Longwood University, Flaherty and Schubert have been together for almost five and half years.

“We definitely have lots of date nights, go to lunch at least once a week, go to the gym together and do homework/study together,” said Flaherty. “Anything to have fun together!”

Planning on marrying Schubert, Flaherty believes that college has not changed much between the two of them. “We have only grown closer to each other,” Flaherty said.

After experiencing a brief break-up, Flaherty and Schubert realized how lucky they were for having each other and decided they had to get back together. “We realized how much we couldn’t live without each other and that being together made us happier,” Flaherty said.

Granted, going to the same school together can be a wonderful plus, but it does not always ensure a relationship will remain intact. College is ultimately a growth period and no one person can realize how much they are going to change during the next four years of their lives.

“It probably made it easier that we were going to the same college, but in the end he changed and became a different person,” said 2010 graduate Letitia Romero. Originally planning on attending a school in Kentucky, Romero changed her mind and decided to attend VCU with her boyfriend at the time, Omar Ezzeddine.

While breaking up can be very hard on a couple just starting a new life, in a completely different place, Romero looked at the break-up between her and her high school sweetheart as something much more positive. “After we broke up I was able to regain my sense of self and everything I felt I lost,” Romero said.

Despite the fact that all of these couples are fairly young, some lucky high school sweethearts have stood the test of time. Alumni Bob Bermingham and Kathy O’Leary began dating at the age of 15. Attending different universities, JMU and Randolph Macon respectively, the young couple went through a lot of hardships to end up where they are today.

“Going through college in a relationship was hard due to the fact that we were in two completely different places doing completely different things,”  O’Leary said.

Now married with four children, the Berminghams’ say there is not one thing they would change about their high school relationship and the way they handled things.  For high school couples, O’Leary advises students to always put the friendship the couple shares before the relationship.

According to a recent study conducted by the Center for Disease Control, 48 percent of marriages before the age of 25 end in divorce within 10 years.  As this is such a small chance, for those seniors who have maintained a relationship in high school, graduation brings both the joy and the fear of moving on and separating from their “high school sweetheart.”  Most seniors put a lot of thought into next steps for their relationship during the college years and there is a surprising amount of variation in how high school couples cope.

Whether you are in a relationship or not, moving on to college is a big step in life and no one can possibly predict how much they will change and learn over the next 4 years. Each couple handles it the best way for them, hoping things will work out, but knowing that they might not. No matter how things go for these couples, their time spent together is a blessing and a big part of their learning, growing, and fun during their high school years.

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Senior couples say good-bye