by Shallot Mohutege
A perfect relationship is as real as saying fairies exist. If there’s anything that I have taken from married couples is that there is no such thing as a perfect relationship or marriage, almost every married couple I spoke to stated that the real flames you will experience is when you are married, so the “happily ever after” Disney movie narrates is actually Happily, Ever After the arguments, disagreements, differences etc. you name it.
One of the biggest decisions most couples have to make in a relationship is whether or not they want to make their relationship public or not. A public relationship is one where everyone knows that you and Titus* are dating, not just your close friends, this kind of relationship is so public that wherever Thomas* goes and by any chance you are not with him they ask him “waar is jou cherie”. This is a kind of relationship whereby the two of you have each other’s pictures displayed on your private Instagram and Facebook accounts with captions under the images like #LoveofMyLife (LOML), #MYRideOrDie etc. a public relationship is one where you do not shy from letting the public know that the two of you are an item.
A low-key relationship on the other hand does not mean that nobody knows about your relationship, on the contrary, it simply means that, only a selective group of people know about your relationship. Your close friends and family members and both of you are not comfortable with the whole world knowing your business but do not shy from the fact that both of you are in a relationship.
Most people, like I mentioned earlier, find it difficult to decide whether to keep their relationship low-key or to let the whole world know. Some people believe social media ruins their relationship, others believe they NEED to let the whole world know they are a couple. One of my favourite memes I’ve read this year is “whether you keep your relationship private or low-key, YOU WILL BREAK UP” *laughs*. I love this meme not because I am hating on IG couples but because truth be told, the strength of your relationship is not determined by how many people know about your relationship.
Public relationships are great. Honestly, I love seeing people in love. The problem comes when these people do things for likes and “#CoupleGoals” comments. The person is no longer happy but also can’t leave because of the profile they’ve built on social media. Then you find yourself stuck in a relationship you want to leave but can’t because you love the 250 likes you get when you upload pictures of you and bae and you are afraid of how many people are going to laugh at you once you stop uploading or when you delete all the pictures. We’ve all gone through this or at least know of somebody who has.
Some women believe that they need to let the world know who they are dating to keep other women away from their boyfriends. I believe it does the opposite. Because when these women see how good your man is treating you they would pursue him in hopes that they get the same treatment you are getting from him.
Also keeping your relationship low-key does not guarantee that it will last. It does however, keep unnecessary as well as irrelevant people out of your business. I mean nothing good ever comes from too many people knowing your business. Just remember that you can keep your relationship private without keeping your partner a secret. There is a huge difference between keeping your relationship private and keeping it a total secret (now where did I hear that…?)
Anyway, let’s face it, at the end of the day you should do what makes you happy and what works for the both of you. I personally do not believe in exploiting a relationship by publicizing details. A relationship should be sacred, so keep it that way and most importantly, keep it yours.!
What are your thoughts? Tweet us
