Confused, But Hopefully Not In A Bad Way.

by Taylor
(Washington)

Ok, prepare for a tedious one!!

I'm a junior in high school, and I've been together with this girl for 16 months. So far, it has been the greatest time of my life, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

We both respect each other and have made a promise to each other that sex can wait, even if that means never having sex together if we end up with someone else.

But here's my dilemma.

We also made a promise that many other couples in my high school DON'T make, and that's that we won't plan on anything too far into the future (i.e. marriage, kids, where to settle down, etc.) and I really like that about our relationship, because it allows us to live in the "now" and just have fun, you know?

But lately I've been noticing something... every time we talk about marriage, kids, where to settle down, and even our sexuality, we almost always have the same preferences.

I want to get married at about 20-21, so does she. I want 2 kids, so does she. I want to live here in my hometown, so does she. and I believe that sex can wait until marriage, and guess what, so does she.

Despite the promise that we made, I keep having these crazy images pop into my head about the two of us in the future, and ALL of them make me very happy!

But I almost feel like I'm breaking the promise because the images give me the feeling that I want our relationship to last forever, which I know very well isn't the case from time to time.

So finally there's my burning question: Is that promise a healthy one to make at my age, and if so, should I be concerned about thinking about those "images"?

I would really appreciate some feedback, because I don't want to end up screwing up my relationship with the person whom I truly believe is my best friend.