For many high school teenagers, the amount of excitement high schoolers have for graduation is shadowed by a quiet fear, the “slow drift.” Most teenagers have the need to get into relationships in high school without really understanding how to maintain them throughout high school. What does a healthy high school relationship look like? How can one handle common high school relationship challenges?
Teenagers are normally told that they should wait after high school to get into relationships because school is our number one priority. For example, my religious beliefs in relationships are that we are allowed to date at a young age if our intentions are to eventually lead to marriage later in life. So basically, a date to marry situation. However, most relationships in high school, in our generation, usually end purely based on cheating, losing feelings quickly, boredom, and just not having the intention of staying long-term.
Maintaining relationships can really be hard if both people aren’t committed 100%. One major reason as to why high school relationships normally end is due to the lack of strong and open communication. Without this in the relationship, a relationship cannot truly thrive, and rarely survives long-term, without strong and open communication. It is considered the foundation of trust and conflict resolution. It’s somewhat acting as the “oxygen” that keeps the relationship alive. Something I believe most teenagers should do in a relationship is to actively express love and gratitude to reinforce positive emotions and combat feelings of being unappreciated.
Following this topic, I came up with the idea to make up a poll that includes other people’s opinion on what they believe is a major reason as to why relationships end. Most people agree with “the lack of strong and open communication” but another major reason being loss of trust and safety. This frequently happens because most highschoolers are still reaching maturity and still developing emotional maturity, which makes these relationships very fragile.
Maintaining relationships after a loss of trust, lack of open communication, and many others, requires rebuilding foundations through transparency, consistent actions, and most importantly, open, empathetic communication. I think focusing on active listening, acknowledging your role in the breakup, setting clear boundaries, and utilizing professional therapy to create a secure and respectful relationship. Focus on strong communication, mutual respect, support each other’s growth, and manage conflicts maturely.
