A few months ago I was out to dinner with my friend L, and we got to talking about how much time we spend with our significant others. At the time, Mr. Cheetah and I had similar schedules and we were able to spend quite a bit of time together (it was awesome). L was on the other end of the spectrum; her husband’s work schedule had him out of town for weeks at a time. It got me thinking about how much the amount of time spent together varies greatly from couple to couple, and even year to year. Some couples are able to be with each other all day, and may even work together (like Jim & Pam below). While many other couples are in long distance relationships and may only get to see each other every couple months or so.
Recently the Cheetahs' schedules have changed and even though we live together we only get to see each other a couple hours a day. In 10+ years together, our schedules, and thus the amount of time we spend together, has changed many times.
When we first started dating, I hated every moment away from Mr. Cheetah—even going to class was a struggle (but I always went). One quarter in college I had a 30-minute break between classes. It took 10 minutes to walk from class to Mr. Cheetah’s apartment and another 10 to walk back to my next class. I visited him every day (well, it was a Tues/Thus class—so twice a week) for those 10 leftover minutes. Yeah... I had it bad.
Just a year ago, there were many days when the only time we’d spend together was when we were sleeping in the same bed. I was finishing up my grad school course work and working on my thesis, so I was gone 15 hours a day. At that same time Mr. Cheetah was working on his Masters and working full time. There was also a 5-month period where we were long distance (I know that might seem like a walk in the park to some of you LD people out there!). We’ve also been lucky and have had stretches of time where we got many hours a day with each other.
While I still love spending oodles and oodles of time with Mr. Cheetah, the years together has made time apart easier. I believe that a little absence does make the heart grow fonder… I love the feeling of seeing Mr. Cheetah after a couple days apart.
How much time do you spend with your SO? How has that changed during your relationship?
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