FREE YOUR MIND

We met on an online dating app and got to know one another online for three weeks before we hung out in person. The age gap was two years, and initially I didn’t take it seriously. I had no intention of getting into a serious relationship, but there was something about him I liked enough to see where it could go. However, I kept going back and forth in my mind about it, because I didn’t quite get the idea of being with someone younger than me. It wasn’t even because I didn’t like him – I did – I was just never into being with someone younger, even if it would to be a fling.

He seemed more mature than I expected, in more ways than I could’ve imagined, so I went with it. I attempted to stop focusing on the age gap. To my surprise, the way we were with one another didn’t feel any different. The relationship felt like we were on an equal playing field, where nothing we said or did hinged on the gap. My friends encouraged it, partly because they wanted to prove my scepticism about younger partners invalid. No one really cared about the fact he was younger than me. It only played a negative role when we discussed our potential future beyond university. I thought what he wanted wasn’t practical, and to be honest, that may have been due to the inexperience of life that came from being younger. In the end, we wanted different things. I wanted someone who would understand the stage of life I was in, and that usually only happens with someone my age or older.