Editor’s Note: All opinion section content reflects the views of the individual author only and does not represent a stance taken by The Collegian or its editorial board.
When the World Health Organization announced that COVID-19 was officially a pandemic, states began implementing safety precautions. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced March 25 that state residents must follow and respect a stay-at-home order.
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The Colorado State University campus has shut down, thousands of students have returned home and many residents are obeying this stay-at-home order. Due to social distancing instructions and the campus closure, many students who had in-person relationships are now faced with the choice of taking a break or continuing through a long-distance relationship.
While some have chosen to either break up or continue through a long-distance relationship, many couples have also chosen to quarantine with their partners. My boyfriend and I are one of those couples.
Or maybe you realize your partner is one of those people who puts toilet paper on the rolL with the open end facing inward, and you could never be with such a monster, even if it were the apocalypse. “
The same way being long-distance changes the perspective of a relationship, quarantining together has its own effects. Maybe quarantining with your partner has helped strengthen your relationship, helped you realize you aren’t ready to live with them or helped you see that the person you’re dating is actually not at all the type of person you’d want to spend the apocalypse with.
Quarantining together may be having a positive effect on your relationship. Without the daily schedule of school, possibly your job and the general entertainment you get from going out, your partner might be your stronghold through an otherwise very lonely time.
Because of social distancing and overall interpersonal communications being limited, the time you spend with your partner in quarantine might help you realize you appreciate their companionship a lot more than you thought. Their companionship keeps you entertained and laughing through these long days.
Their presence may also have made your mental state less tortuous than it might have been if you had spent quarantine without them. It’s no secret that staying inside all day every day isn’t always good for your mental health, but having someone you can talk to about your anxieties and fears might help to ease the pain.
When you decide to quarantine with your new boyfriend… pic.twitter.com/Ora4nUUKMR
— Ezra (@EzraCeleste) March 18, 2020
Quarantining together may also prove that you love your partner, but you are nowhere near ready to move in and actually live with them in the near future. Being stuck inside 24/7 and being able to constantly observe each other might point out some traits or habits your partner has that you weren’t otherwise aware of, totally and completely driving you bonkers.
For example, you might put toilet paper on the roll with the open end sticking outward. However, your partner might put toilet paper on the roll with the open end facing inward. At first, it might not seem like a big deal until you have to fix this issue 16 times. It’s a minor inconvenience in reality, yes, but it’s still a pet peeve of yours that makes you dislike them just a little bit.
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Other than their behaviors that might turn out to be some of your pet peeves, their general, constant existence in your space may be annoying to you.
Their companionship keeps you entertained and laughing through these long days.”
Maybe you’re the kind of person who likes having their alone time to do whatever they want. What if you’re trying to spend your alone time going into a different room from your partner, but your partner has an unknowing habit of humming? Habits die hard, and it might not be a battle you can ever win. Now you’re just frustrated and yelling at your partner to shut up, and any semblance of a nice relationship has just shattered for those five minutes.
Quarantining together may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Isolating together may ultimately lead to the end of your relationship; so maybe that’s a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. Living with your partner might expose some of their personal habits or views that you didn’t know existed before, and it might completely change how you view them.
If you learn something new about your partner during your isolation together that shakes you to your core and forever changes how you view them, then maybe quarantining together and learning about it now is better than growing your relationship and getting hurt later on.
Maybe you discover you’re not ready for a relationship, and you value your space and alone time too much to have a partner right now. Or maybe you realize your partner is one of those people who puts toilet paper on the roll with the open end facing inward, and you could never be with such a monster, even if it were the apocalypse.
COVID-19 and the correlating stay-at-home order have significantly altered everyone’s daily lives. People’s relationships have suddenly changed to long-distance or living together through the isolation. Being stuck in quarantine with your partner may seem like a dream, and maybe to some it is, but doing so is also a rude awakening for many about the state of their relationship.
Shay Rego can be reached at letters@collegian.com or on Twitter at @shay_rego.
