By Shannon McKenna
Round Table editor

It seems like everyone goes through it, that rush that comes with falling for someone. That’s why it’s called a “crush;” it’s when you just can’t help but smile at that person, you get butterflies in your stomach constantly, and you worry about the simple things.

After the “school kid” crush, a relationship might bloom. But that classic attraction doesn’t always end up with the fairytale ending like in stories we grew up reading.

It seems like everything starts out perfectly at the beginning of a relationship because that’s the “blind love” phase. All you can do is look at each other and no one else, and you want to be around each other all the time. When you aren’t with that person, it feels like you are missing a piece of yourself.

But sooner or later, you start to see faults in one another – and yourself. Being in a relationship can turn you into a different person. The way you treat others can change, and sometimes you pick up some of the habits of your other half.

I have been in a relationship in which the person I was dating had absolutely nothing in common with me. I listen to alternative music; he listened to screamo. I do theatre and dance; he’s an artist. I like to hang out with a huge group of friends, having fun; he was content with sitting at home with one or two friends.

Just because two people don’t have anything in common, though, doesn’t mean they can’t get along. I dated this guy for six months and we were head-over-heels for each other, but then with one tiny fight, it finally sank into my head how much we didn’t have in common.  That was the end of our “perfect” relationship.

I’m not saying relationships are stupid and always end badly.  It’s only after you know what’s important to you in your relationship and your life that you can begin to grow as a person. You learn from your mistakes.

I  have learned so many things from being in a relationship.

1. Be patient with each other; sometimes neither of you actually has a clue what’s going on.

2. Don’t take for granted very little emotion you both express.

3. Think about each other rather than yourselves.

4. Breaking someone’s heart when things aren’t the same anymore may seem like the hardest thing you will ever have to do in your life.

5. Both of you will always remember the special moments you shared together: the good, the bad and the ugly.