“You aren’t giving up on your aspirations just to follow that boy are you?” They say, at­tempting to criticize me without know­ing my actual future plans.

In today’s age, it is often assumed that just because one is in a relationship while entering college that they are giving up their future career to become more family oriented. Society feeds us these ideas that you must choose between schooling or a romantic relationship, that there is a black or a white. Most oftenly there is always a gray area that people neglect to consider.

Just because a couple chooses to remain together after graduation does not mean that they are automatically giving up on any fu­ture career that they may plan to have. The two of them make the ultimate decision to stay together and better themselves.

Society tries to tell us that there is a cer­tain order that life must go in. After high school graduation, young adults have to go to college, then graduate from college, find love, get married, and then start a family. Little do people know, there is no specific path you must follow in life.

Being in love does not mean that one automatically becomes fully dependent on their significant other. Young adults can be in a relationship and still be independent enough to earn a degree and be able to stand on their own two feet.

People fail to realize that going to col­lege while being committed to another per­son helps strengthen the relationship. The couple goes to college together to better themselves and their careers and be able to successfully support a future family.

Everyone loves the idea of young love, but when they see it trying to prosper into later years they turn their backs and criti­cize it.

As a society, we need to support these partners. It is better to build them up and prepare them for life than tear them down.