This article originally appeared in the February 2016 print edition.
By Rodolfo Salinas
For someone that is single, the month of February can be so bittersweet. I can’t stand the idea of feeling lonely on Valentine’s Day. However, I also can’t stand the idea of not graduating college. Finishing my undergraduate degree is way more important than a relationship right now. I say this because I made the mistake of dropping out of school one semester due to the fact that I fell in love. It’s the kind of love that makes you feel rejuvenated and the kind that makes you take decisions impulsively. You can say I would do and did everything for the person that I was in love with but after that huge mistake that affected my academic endeavor, I will never do it again.
My mind has made its own decision to carry on with or without love until I’m done with college. I share this experience because I wouldn’t want someone to go through the same situation. I believe that love is defined as good intention towards another person.
If the person I was in love with had good intentions for me, that person would not have allowed me the opportunity to fail at something that I began. College is not like a project that can go undone. It needs to be done. It’s not good to be with someone who is ignorant and makes you wait for their good intentions. There are more important things to wait for, like graduating. There are many forms of love that most people are unaware of. I don’t want to come off as an individual trying to convince people not to be in a relationship. I want to be the one to remind you that unhealthy relationships exist and sometimes you need someone to let you know that other things are more important, especially if you’re a student. I would rather sacrifice for school than to sacrifice for one person.
Relationships can be a handful, but let’s face it, everyone can agree that the moments of happiness are the moments worthwhile. If there are not enough moments of happiness in your relationship, then there’s something wrong. Bad communication skills lead to no solution. Be with someone that can understand and listen.
With all these new dating applications that exist, it’s easier to gain someone in less time than it took before. The apps can work for you or against you, and I say this because it happens. Infidelity has a higher chance now to occur and it’s all because of the faster connection that people have in this world. There’s no control over someone committing infidelity. I have a friend that didn’t even know about the dating apps and I warned her that it could happen to her because they made the decision not to look through each other’s phones. It shouldn’t be my business to declare how their relationship should work but I should at least give her the idea that there’s still a chance that infidelity can occur. It happened to me so why wouldn’t it happen to someone else. It’s not only infidelity that can cause an unhealthy relationship, there’s much more issues that add up to it. Drug abuse, violence, money, and cognitive ability are just some factors that affect a relationship.
So if you’re having issues that relate to those factors, make sure you’re out of that relationship soon. Trust me; you’ll even save money on Valentine’s Day if you leave something that’s not meant to be anymore. Stop trying to make it work if it won’t work anymore. Begin again and find happiness once again because just like they say, there’s plenty of fish in the sea.
