Being single comes with its own unique culture and lifestyle habits. While some of the quirks you develop while rolling solo — sleeping diagonally across the bed, sometimes spending an entire weekend in pajamas eating takeout on the couch, etc. — will probably always be part of your life, many of the things you’ve grown accustomed to tend to change, sometimes dramatically, when you finally settle down with your person.
- “Netflix and chill” is actually “Netflix and pass out.” Netflix and chill, a once coveted affair by many, is the first thing to go once you’re in a true and comfortable relationship. You no longer worry about missing the movie/episode you’re watching because some creep is trying to get in your pants. Instead, it’s just you and your guy and the only reason you both miss whatever you’re watching is because you’ve lost consciousness from the abundance of snacks and cuddling.
- Sexting morphs into texts about household chores. Say goodbye to penis pictures and hello to the serious relationship terms of endearment also known as “can you pick up some yogurt on your way home?” or “did you take the recycling out today?” It’s not all so mundane, though… you also get cute statements like “I love you” instead of “send nudes.”
- Good morning texts are actually good morning in person. It’s such a great feeling to wake up to those initial good morning texts from a guy you’re newly dating, but once you get serious, those good morning greetings actually happen in real life, which is a pretty nice and welcome change. You almost forget all of those lonely mornings when you woke up hearing nothing at all.
- If you get overly emotional or heated, you’re not ghosted as punishment. When you have a minor disruption or a clash of opinions when casually dating someone, you’re pretty much written off and ignored permanently as punishment for being a slightly flawed human being. It’s because our dating scene over-glorifies the idea of perfection. The good news is that once you’re in a real and serious relationship, those minor disputes and spats are maturely understood as normal and healthy occurrences when two people are sharing their lives together.
- You go from thoughtful texts to communicating solely in memes at times. Once upon a time, you used to write cute and long typical ‘getting to know each other’ texts that sometimes were like novellas, but now you don’t need all the filler. In fact, some days you communicate solely in inappropriate memes, emojis and ridiculous selfies of yourselves. How cute.
- Gone are the days of the dreaded “u up?” text at 2 a.m. Those annoying notifications trying to invade your beauty sleep are a thing of the past. Occasionally, however, your guy does the in-person equivalent by artfully spooning you in the middle of the night hoping that you’ll get the hint. You usually don’t, and instead end up mumbling some form of a refusal instead. Welcome to serious couple town, population: you.
- You can tone down the high fashion wardrobe/runway makeup looks. Of course you still want to look good in your relationship for your partner and for yourself, but working overtime to create the eye-catching single babe look isn’t your top priority anymore. Instead of saddling your body up expertly to flaunt all of your best features, you’ve opted to combine comfort and class together for the perfect serious girlfriend vibe. Let’s not get started on the evolution of your at-home-clothes, either!
- Dates are more low key and budget friendly. While date nights are always a must in any relationship, it’s no longer what your relationship relies and thrives on. Once you start dating< someone steadily, the reality is that things shift from dimly lit tables and fancy plated foods to staying in and cooking together in sweatpants. It might seem like the romance has faded out, but saving money together and being in more intimate and low key settings are actually pretty damn awesome.
- The degree of your life drama changes. You used to get bent out of shape over douchebag guys who ghosted on you as a form of breaking up with you. You’ve spent plenty of time mending your heart from the jerk who strung you along and made you believe you were relevant when he was actually dating a slew of other women on the side. Now, you’ve evolved from feeling devastated and demoralized from harsh breakups and dealing with jerks to being annoyed AF when your partner hogs the bathroom and you haven’t finished your contour and are running late for work. Champagne problems.
- You’re finally happily annoyed at one special human. It might seem like being in a serious relationship is annoying AF at times, and to be honest, it can be. All relationships require patience, love and most of all, work, but given what you’ve been through in your single AF life, you couldn’t be happier to finally be happily annoyed with just one special human. Serious relationships might not seem as fun as the single life from the outside looking in, but being comfortable and in love with one person has it’s advantages over the Netflix and chill culture. You wouldn’t trade it back for a minute.
