Tuesday, October 30, 2012

That old couple


I have always felt kind of sorry for “those couples” that have been together since they were teenagers. I know how cruel that sounds but in all honesty this is what goes through my mind when people tell me they’ve been together since high school: “holy crap that is unnecessarily long, they probably love each other the way they love their pets. Sigh... there is no way that they still have sex”. But because I’m polite, I respond “wow that’s so wonderful”.

On Sunday the 21st of October I celebrated 5 years of being with the love of my life. Now I'm one of “them”. Sitting on the other side of the relationship fence. The side where people love to ask me for relationship advice like I'm some kind of expert. The side that archaic people think it’s okay to ask ridiculous questions like are we going to get married? If we do, how many children? Would we live in Cape Town or go back to Johannesburg? Bla bla bla.

It’s actually really tough to dodge these questions politely. Sometimes I don’t quite manage. Sometimes I don’t even try.

As one of “them” I can sincerely say that when you get to 5 years, it doesn't seem long. Not even with the three years of JHB-CPT “see you one weekend a month” long distance.

I used to tell all my friends not to do this long distance thing, but now I'm glad that none of them listened to me. Long distance somehow brings you closer, makes words clearer and makes promises stick. These past 5 years seems like a few holidays, dinners, tears and laughter.

Even so, I know that the next person who hears “it’s been 5 years” come out of my mouth will be thinking “you poor thing, you guys have been together for so long that you definitely don’t have sex any more.”

To ‘you people’, I say fuck you.

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