08 FeaturesFeaturesFeatures
Love
Features Features Features 09
The Scoop on
Are High School Relationships Worth It? By Lauren Crosier Reporter
What’s not to love about high school sweethearts? The wedding stories go way back, kids think they’re cute, and there isn’t that uncomfortable introduction because school did it for them. But are there any actual benefits to dating in high school besides fond memories to look back on when one is older? Some believe young love teaches people how they want and deserve to be treated. Others believe high school relationships are a waste of time. Science tends to agree with the latter point of view. In fact ,some studies have shown negative effects of high school relationships. Brian Soller, Ph.D. and sociology professor at the University of New Mexico said, “girls’ risk of severe depression, thoughts of suicide, and suicide attempt increase the more their relationships diverge from what they imagined.” Here at Avon, experiences vary. For sophomore Luke Whitmer, relationships are “a distraction and pointless.” When asked what the average person gets out of a high school relationship, his response was to the point: “pain and suffering.” However, sophomore Cameron Watt, who has been in a relationship for over a year, said that high school relationships are important because they teach people to compromise, trust and communicate. While only 2 percent of high school couples make it for the long run, according to the 2011 U.S. Census Bureau, high school relationships that lead to marriage are less likely to end in divorce. FEBRUARY 2016
Senior Ariell Cranor, who has been dating her boyfriend for a year as of Feb. 9, said relationships are learning experiences. “Dating in high school teaches you what you’re looking for in a relationship and how to maintain a healthy relationship,” Cranor said. Watt said the key to maintaining a relationship is being genuine. “Be yourself,” Watt said, “because if you fake being someone you aren’t ,it’s going to be difficult to maintain that personality and the person you’re dating will like that personality, not your own.” To Cranor, communication is key. She said there can be breakdowns in communication and a lot of teens don’t know what they want out of life yet, so they break up, but disagreements don’t have to be the end of the relationship. “Good communication and respect for one another can prolong a relationship,” Cranor said. Cranor said that truly listening to your partner can make all the difference. She said remembering minor details can be one of the most romantic things a person can do for another. “Back towards the beginning of our relationship, I said how I’d love to get a horse drawn carriage around Christmas time,” Cranor said. “Christmas rolled around, and that’s exactly what he got me. The carriage itself wasn’t what made the night, it was the fact that he’d listened and remembered something I’d said almost a year ago. It’s the little things like that, the small acts of love that makes everything worth it.”
Trust is Most Important: Seniors Madison Magallon and Cooper Cannon have been together for three years and 11 months. Cannon and Magallon agree that the best thing about being in a relationship is “always having someone you can trust and talk to.”
First Date and Many Others: Junior Riley Banks and Senior Lance Meyer have been dating for two years as of Feb. 13, 2016. The couple first met when a mutual friend invited Banks to sit at Meyer’s lunch table. From there, their relationship grew. “She went to the same place as my family for spring break one year; we got to take long walks on the beach and it was where we had our first kiss.”
CHECK OUT AVONECHO.COM FOR VIDEOS ON AVON STUDENTS ATTEMPTING TO FALL IN LOVE WITH ONLY 36 QUESTIONS!
Testing the Theory: Will 36 Questions Make You Fall in Love? By Taylor Belleville Managing Editor
We’ve all heard of love at first sight, but what about love in 45 minutes? In 1997, social psychology researcher Arthur Aron believed that two strangers could fall in love in 45 minutes given the right circumstances. The experiment? 36 questions, to be asked back and forth, followed by four minutes of staring into the eyes of the person sitting across from you. Then, bada bing, bada boom, you’re in love. It sounds ridiculous, right? Despite my apprehension I decided to try it out for myself. I texted a boy with whom I’ve had an on and off friendship with for the past two years. We had tried to go on a date when we first met, but it wasn’t the right timing for either of us. This date would be the first time that we had seen each other in seven months. We met at a Starbucks in Plainfield. The night started off with the usual small talk that quickly lead to nowhere. As we were trailing into a silence, I brought up the questions and, as we started to answer them, we immediately began to fall in love. Ha, just kidding. Each question that we answered dug a little bit deeper into who we truly are. We discussed whether or not we’d like to be famous, our opinions on love, our dying words and everything in-between. About halfway through out last set of questions, a veil of awkwardness fell over us when a question appeared asking us to make three “we” statements each. Talking about yourself is strange enough, but bringing
the other person into it almost seemed like a step too far. After a moment of hesitation he took the plunge to go first, and the words that he said made me feel the first stirrings of what I would consider love. While I had been expecting an answer something along the lines of “We are both here feeling awkward,” he instead said “We are both here feeling closer than we’ve ever felt before, and comfortable.” And he was right; despite my own inability to not perceive awkwardness in every situation, this was slowly morphing into something more than just two friends meeting. Fourty-five minutes later the grand finale was upon us; four minutes of continuous eye contact. I clicked the timer and we began. Time passed a lot faster than I had anticipated that it would, and as I started to wonder if this experiment really could be working, I glanced down and realized that the four minutes had already passed. We were officially done. I may not have fallen in love, but I did begin to feel the stirrings of something. A sense of closeness was fostered between my partner and I that night, and I highly doubt that we ever would have felt as close as we did that night if we hadn’t answered those 36 questions. So does this experiment really work? As of right now, I don’t know.
A second date was discussed, but his distance has posed problems. Does that mean that love is completely out of the question? I guess only time will tell.
Successfully Escaping the Friendzone: Seniors Lexi Peters and Dakota Carlton have been dating for over two years. However, at one point in time Peters was “friendzoned” by Carlton. “[Dakota] had feelings for another girl and just wanted [us] to be friends,” Peters said. “But, he started to like me more and the other girl moved on and dated other guys.”
PAGE DESIGN AND PHOTOS BY RACHEL MOORE