You’re Not Really A Couple Until You’ve Hit These 23 Micro Milestones
When you catch yourself silently narrating the story of your relationship in your head because it makes you so happy to relive every stage of your own modern romance.
1. When you promise “forever” and for the first time it doesn’t seem like a stretch—at all.
2. When you realize that all your past relationships were kind of a joke compared to what you have now, which is both hilarious and awesome. Like, what the hell were you doing exchanging I love you’s with anyone else?
3. When the Wifi dies or you’re stuck somewhere remote without an Internet connection and after the initial shock wears off, you find yourselves grateful for the time offline together.
4. When the Wifi finally kicks back in after a prolonged period and you decide to make more of an effort to disconnect regularly because doing so forces you to remember just how crazy you are about each other.
5. When news of another couple’s breakup makes you inexplicably sad because you believe so wholeheartedly in lasting love that you’re allergic to evidence to the contrary.
6. When your plans go disastrously wrong but you don’t end up getting upset because it really doesn’t matter what you’re doing as long as you’re with your person.
7. When you can honestly say that nights at home are so much better than all those nights you used to spend out at the bar.
8. When you catch yourself silently narrating the story of your relationship in your head because it makes you so happy to relive every stage of your own modern romance.
9. When there’s a serious surge in the number of people asking you for relationship advice and you know in your heart it’s because people recognize that you’ve figured that stuff out.
10. When you choose to be with your significant other over doing something you truly love because it’s worth sacrificing just about anything to be with them.
11. When you find yourself wondering if other couples could possibly feel as strongly as you guys do about each other.
12. When a trip down memory lane proves so rewarding that you have to wonder what you did to deserve someone so wonderful.
13. When you realize that your love is the kind people write songs about.
14. When you refrain from responding to an ex’s text purely because it seems disrespectful to be in touch with past lovers.
15. When someone asks how your partner is doing and the very thought of your lover prompts you to smile wider than you have all week.
16. When you find yourself tweaking the truth in a harmless way not out of self-interest but specifically to protect your partner’s feelings.
17. When you catch your partner in a white lie but you can’t be mad because their heart was so clearly in the right place.
18. When winning a silly argument with your partner—about who starred in a movie, the time your local coffee shop closes, or how many years it’s been since Britney Spears went batshit crazy—proves more satisfying than being right in any other scenario.
19. When someone comments that you seem to be doing well and you have to credit your significant other because they really have changed your life for the better and made you a happier, healthier human.
20. When something funny happens during sex and you both have to pause because you can’t stop cracking up.
21. When traveling alone starts to seem like a burden because you’d rather go everywhere and do everything with your life partner.
22. When the story of your personal journey suddenly involves a lot less I’s and a whole lot more we’s.
23. When the future starts to seem way more exciting than daunting because you get to tackle it with someone you truly adore. 