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Summer Date Series – Evening At The Beach + What I’ve Learned From Being In A Committed Relationship

ByCaitlin

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I have had a great week so far. I’ve worked on some really great content for the blog, and I’m flying to North Carolina on Friday for my aunt’s wedding. Not only will I get to see my aunt and soon to be uncle, but I’ll also get to see my mom, my cousin that I haven’t seen in years and my aunt and uncle from Germany. I don’t get to see them that often so I am super excited about the week ahead and I can’t wait to introduce them to you on the blog!

So, with summer “officially” coming to a close, even though it’s still extremely hot here in Florida and well, everywhere haha, I wanted to end the summer date series with one of my favorite things to do: spending an evening at the beach.

P.S. I will be continuing my date series into the fall, starting with a fun activity that is really a year round thing to do. Stay tuned!

I love going to the beach in the evenings because it’s not as crowded, allowing for more intimate time. The weather is also nice and cool for a long walk on the beach.

One of my favorite things to do is to sit up in a lifeguard chair because you have the best view of the beach. This is actually really fun to do at night when the stars are out because you can sit and find the constellations together. Or, if you’re like me, you can get an app to help you do it! haha!

In this blog post I also wanted to talk about what I’ve learned from being in a committed relationship. Up until I met Chandler, I had never been in a long relationship. My longest was less than a year and I was younger which really makes a difference. I’m definitely more mature now and being in a relationship also helps to mature you.

I recently sat down with one of my coworkers who has been married for over ten years to get some advice. I asked her,” how did you feel when you hit the two year mark?” I asked because I didn’t know how I was supposed to feel. Obviously I’m not working hard to impress Chandler anymore, and I’m not afraid to burp or even fart in front of him. Yes, I said it. It’s reality!

She said that she felt the same way that I felt which is that nice, comfortable feeling. She asked me, “is he your person’?’ and I said “yes.” She said “then that’s all that matters! You two love each other and are just getting settled with your life.” Which is so true. Chandler and I were only together six months before the navy took him to California for over a year. Then we moved in together and then we got a dog. That’s a lot in two years!

The next thing I asked was “is her husband messy?” She said yes faster than Diesel eating a cookie out of my hand! I immediately felt better. She told me about how her husband leaves stuff out all the time. I felt better because I was like thank goodness it’s not just my boyfriend haha! Not saying Chandler is super messy, because I don’t want you all to think he’s some kind of slob or something but every guy leaves some stuff out. 😛

One ironic statement that she shared with me was that he isn’t going to change. It’s ironic because I remember my eighth grade teacher telling all the girls the same thing. I’ve never tried to change Chandler because I fell in love with the person that he is. But going back to the sometimes messy part or stuff like that, I just have to learn to accept it, find better ways to keep things organized and just work together as a team to do so.

The last, and most important thing she shared with me is that communication is key. This may sound obvious, and at first when she said it I was like well yeah. But then she went a little deeper with it. We talked about times where our significant others did things we didn’t like and how we approached the situation verbally. She explained how he had done something once and instead of reacting right away, she actually waited until the end of the day so that she was completely cooled off and was able to handle it maturely and calmly. 
This is something I know I have to work on. I have a really sweet side to me, but I also have a temper (thanks dad :P). Hearing this from her really helped because you see couples that have been together for 10 years, 20 years, even 50 years and one of the things they tell you is that you HAVE to communicate. You’re going to get into arguments and there’s going to be plenty of them, but, it’s how you handle them that determines what happens next. 

Being with Chandler has been the best two and a half years of my life and I wouldn’t change a thing. We are always learning something new about each other and we are always there for each other. I know that he’s my support system just as much as I am his. Never settle for average. Find someone who makes you their world, because I promise, you’ll be happy you did. 🙂

I hope you all have loved the summer date series. Like I said above, the date series is going to continue into fall and I have some really cute ideas coming soon!

Please let me know what you thought about this post in the comments below, and if you also have any relationship tips that you have learned from being in a long relationship, I would love to hear about them and I’m sure everyone else would too!

Thanks for reading. 🙂 
Photography by the beautiful Chantell Cruz