With school being held remotely, students in relationships are faced with limited daily interaction. Although many students are already used to texting and calling their partners in the digital age, they are forced to do so now more than ever.
When school shut down last March, junior Kaelyn Luebke expected shelter-in-place orders to last a week. She and her boyfriend sophomore Etueni Georgievski were best friends before the pandemic, having met during a school musical. They began dating just as school closures began.
“We’re both really into drama, theater, the arts, all of that,” Luebke said. “We just had this instant bond [when we met] … and became friends. … Then [we] only really started dating in quarantine. … It was a good time to say how you feel.”
Despite her initial expectations, coronavirus regulations are now nine months in with no definite end, and the two are seldom able to see each other. They have only met five times since campus closures.
“We try to actually social distance as much as possible,” Luebke said. “Like my mom [says]: ‘masks in the house, stay as far apart from each other as we can.’ Same with outside: ‘do activities outside like a bike ride, go for a walk or something to just keep it as safe as possible.’ We try, but again, it’s hard.”
Even though their interactions have mostly been online, they made the relationship work.
“Honestly, in all, I would say it’s brought us closer together,” Luebke said. “We now know we need to savor every moment we have with each other. When you have that special person, any time to talk to them is just that special moment.”
“We now know we need to savor every moment we have with each other”
Sophomores Brooklyn Beaumont-Bent and Jared Walsh had been dating since December of 2018, and before Nov. 10, they were seeing each other three times a week. Initially, they did not meet face-to-face at all.
“Our parents thought that it would be best if, with everything going on … we were separated for the time being,” Beaumont-Bent said. “Then they realized … it wasn’t really going to work out that way if we didn’t see each other, so they agreed that we can just be in our own bubble and only see each other and each other’s families, but not really our friends.”
A big struggle for the two, however, has been finding time to meet. Walsh, a player for Aragon’s football team, has conditioning nearly every day, and cheer season is beginning for Beaumont-Bent.
“Last year, he went to San Mateo, so we’d see each other every weekend,” Beaumont-Bent said. “Now that he’s transferred to Aragon, we thought it [would] be easier because we’d get to go to school together, but then we never did. It’s been hard, but we work around our schedules.”
Even when the two do meet, deciding what to do can be difficult with so many restrictions. San Mateo County is currently in purple tier, the most restrictive of four, indicating that there are either more than seven new cases per 100,000 per day or over 8% of tests are returning positive. On Nov. 30, the county began enforcing a curfew; between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. residents may not meet with each other, and shopping and dining options are halted.
“[The challenging part of having a relationship during the pandemic is] just finding new things to do to keep it entertaining,” Beaumont-Bent said. “[There’s] not really much we can do.”
Similarly, seniors Kausik Kolluri and Taylor Rokala, who have been dating since sophomore year, notice less variety to their discussions.
“It’s definitely harder to talk, because there’s nothing really interesting going,” Kolluri said. “[Before] quarantine, we’d talk about [exciting aspects of] our day], whether it was my tennis season or tests or her job. Now, [there isn’t much to talk about] besides something interesting going on in our classes, [and] that doesn’t happen often.”
The two have met regularly, nearly every other week, but they are still cautious and strictly adhere to social distancing guidelines and wear masks when they only see each other. However, like many other couples, they struggle to find time together with college applications and various extracurriculars.
It hasn’t been all bad, as the two have made the most out of their common interests.
“I think [the Aragon Model U.N. Conference] was good,” Kolluri said. “We prepared beforehand together.”
Despite the distance obstacle, Aragon students in relationships have creatively adapted to the times in part by increasing technology use.
