It's been a pretty shit year in all honesty. So I've been playing the absentee card from my blog here, because who knows what kinda crazy I'm liable to spew out when I'm emotional.
Enough of that though, I actually have something I want to talk about. I thought about it on the train to uni this morning, and I remember thinking "man, I should write this down so I remember to write a blog about it later because this is an awesome anecdote to write a blog about".
While I did not write it down, by some miracle I did remember what it was, and here I am writing about it. However, this may have something to do with the extreme procrastination I am undertaking these days. Only 6 more weeks of my undergraduate career to go... thank god. I'm so over study.
Anywho, back to said anecdote. Although it's not really an anecdote. More of a thought.
At what point does a boyfriend (or girlfriend for that matter) become called a partner?!
Is it when you consider yourself too old to use the juvenile terminology of 'boyfriend' and it conjures up a youthful existence you wish never to return to?
Is it when you're post-boyfriend stage but pre-fiance stage, where you're not freshly together, routine has set in, you're comfortable with each other, but you're not at the next stage of committment?
Is it when you move in together? In which case saying "I live with my partner" sounds much more mature and serious than "I live with my boyfriend".
Or is it perhaps because you just don't like the word?
I think it's an interesting conundrum. I don't know why this thought suddenly plagued me on the train at 10am, and I really have no opinion or clue about this (in spite of the relationship advice I seem to be constantly giving my friends... have they not noticed I've been single for 3 years?!) so comment what you think.
Because it's a funny one.
well... I got my first "boyfriend" when I was 19 - at the beginning of each of the three relationships I've had, they've been boyfriends... my second "boyfriend" was 26 and had been in a serious 3 year relationship previously so he called me his "other half" and "partner" from the get go (even though we weren't living together). I always switched between bf and partner through out the whole relationship but used "partner" more so when we were living together for 6 months. My current boyfriend is a year younger than me and we're both still quite young so I still call him my boyfriend quite often even though we've been living together for over a year. But I still call him my partner when it comes to formal situations, like when I'm talking with older people etc. Personally, I think it's a mix of personal preference, age group, context etc. We want to get engaged soon so that will make things a lot easier - "fiance" makes things a lot clearer hahaha
ReplyDeleteSo the moral of your story is to get engaged and then problem solved?! hehe ;)
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