MAKING A COMMITMENT: LONGTERM.
The issue of longterm relationships is a highly complex one, and deserves the volumes written about it in its own right. But without a doubt, making the decision to enter into a longterm relationship makes you confront your attitudes to sexuality and partnerships not only in terms of passion, but also in terms of practicality.
Contrary to popular folklore, it is virtually impossible to tell how long it is going to last in the early stages of any relationship. It would help to have a crystal ball because some relationships that seem ‘made to measure’ fall apart at the seams, while others that seem doomed can blossom into the ‘love of a lifetime’. Obviously factors outside the relationship have an impact on how long it lasts too, like financial pressure, work commitments, family expectations, and cultural and religious differences.
Some people in a longterm relationship didn’t make the decision at all. It just happened. There you are one day, thinking how well you get along with your partner, and you realize you have been getting along well and happily making compromises for some time. Nevertheless, at some stage you will face a turning pont in the relationship that will make you confront your feelings about sexuality. That might be at a time when you make the decision to give up other partners, to stop using condoms, to live together, to marry or to have children — decisions that will shape the rest of your life.
*72/17/9*
