It can be both challenging and rewarding to accept the person you’re dating for exactly who they are. What’s even more challenging is accepting the fact that they are also just “some guy” that someone went to high school with. Here’s how to cope with that fact, even though there are probably at least 100 people out there who completed grades 9 through 12 alongside your boyfriend, which is super weird.
Focus on who he is to you.
Try to forget about the fact that somebody thinks of your boyfriend as just “David from high school” and focus instead on who he is to you now. While someone out there might think of your boyfriend in terms of eating lunch in a cafeteria in their hometown – that’s not the person you met, even though it did make him who he is today (he still eats lunch, just not in the cafeteria).
Remember that everyone has a past.
I mean, you went to high school, too, right? It’s not your boyfriend’s fault that he graduated with people who still exist in the world. The important thing is that he also did stuff after that – he moved out of his hometown, got a job, accumulated a severe amount of debt, all before he even met you. Don’t let one past mistake (being in a high school PE class at some point) detract from all the good things he’s done in the past too (not going to the same high school you went to).
Don’t let social media influence your happiness.
We’ve all fallen victim to this at one time or another: You’re scrolling Instagram and you see a guy you went to high school with posted a picture of him and his girlfriend and you think, “Why would anyone date someone I went to high school with?” Even though it’s hard for you to fathom, not everyone sees people you went to high school with the same way that you do. They are literally just another person that someone could meet and date, not just a vague memory of a 15-year-old from Cincinnati, Ohio.
So the next time you’re with your boyfriend, try and forget about the fact that someone has probably said the words, “David? Oh yeah, he was in my sophomore English class” and accept that you’re dating someone from high school – even if it was not your own.
