By Hope Sandusky/nw news editor
We see them on Twitter. We see them on Instagram. We see them on Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest. Pictures that flood our social media accounts to no end. They all bear the same caption: Relationship goals, or #RelationshipGoals.
These images show the most expensive, name-brand objects that the retail world offers, all supposedly being exchanged from one person to their significant other.
We see these pictures, and we’re supposed to feel envy that we aren’t with someone who can shower us with this wealth of gifts for no apparent reason.
We see these pictures, and we’re supposed to aspire to have that kind of relationship, the kind with his-and-her matching watches, hundreds of flowers and shopping bags full of stuff.
Now more than ever, young adults are seeking relationships based off material wealth we can accumulate through that person, not on whether we actually find ourselves compatible with that person.
We are jealous of those pictures, jealous of the ideal that somewhere out there is our perfect someone with wads of cash, waiting to be thrown at us and our every desire. We expect that from the people we are with now, and if we don’t get it, we’re not satisfied.
For being a bunch of broke college students, we sure do expect a lot from our partners.
Don’t get me wrong. I am all for spoiling your significant other. It’s fun to be adored and have someone show it through material objects at times.
But when did that become our goals for a relationship?
When we say “relationship goals,” in essence, we are saying that these things make a relationship successful, that these things make up the pinnacle of a relationship, that with these things, you know you’ve made it.
Nobody ever laid on their deathbed saying, “I wish I had more things.” The success stories of the 50+-year couples don’t say, “We could have been happier if only we had bought more things.”
There is no satisfaction from a relationship based on material things. Watches break, flowers die and bags of things will get old and fade. In the end, all we will be left with is the people around us, and that won’t add up to much if all we do is spend time accumulating things.
The things that make a relationship successful are trust, communication, honesty, kindness and love. Those are the type of things I aspire to in my relationships.
Regardless of what we own or what we wear. I want a relationship with honest communication, with laughter and joy, with kindness and love. Anything else that comes with that is just icing on the cake.
