<p>it took me 2+ yrs to get over my first love. we're best friends now</p>
<p>I would advise you to look beyond the more serious aspects (marriage, children) and just enjoy the relationship while you can. If it's meant to be, you'll figure this stuff out down the road.</p>
<p>First loves often collapse sooner or later.
But to be honest, you guys don't seem to be compatible, unless you can work out some kind of a compromise.</p>
<p>Please try to stay friends with her. If you can't date eachother, you can still be great friends, and you'll probably really appreciate having one once you're off to college. If you love her, isn't it better to try to transfer that to friendship than to end up hating eachother again?</p>
<p>I admire that you have the maturity to be asking yourself these questions. I assume that you're an older teenager? The people who claim that high schoolers are not ready to contemplate their romantic futures forget that marriage is commonly not even 5 years away for some 18-year-olds. While not everyone can handle a serious relationship at this age (much less balance that with school!), some people can. </p>
<p>Anyways Visirale, I completely sympathize. I'm sort of in the same boat as you, except that I'm the atheist girl who'd rather work for an arts non-profit and fall off into the lake, whereas my boyfriend envisions the Lexus in the garage, the two kids on the floor, and the plasma TV on the wall. The two of us have been dating for almost 3 years without too much trouble (after all, when you're both in high school, such differences in aspirations don't come up very often), but as college approaches, we're going to have to talk about it. I love him. He's an admirable person-- kind, smart, giving and considerate to no end-- but we want such vastly different things from life and we are travelling on such very different paths. </p>
<p>I can't give you any answers, especially since I don't know the answers in my own life. Love isn't the sort of thing that earns a rational response. All I know is this: long-term romance endures because of passion, but also because of effort. Marriage or lasting love doesn't just fall into your lap; you have to work at it, compromise, and learn to let go of some things. However, when the personal sacrifices become too great and when you think you're giving up something essential of your nature for the sake of a relationship, perhaps the committment is not worth it. </p>
<p>Search yourself, ask yourself, "Is being with her worth making concessions in how I want to raise my children, act on my aspirations, and live my life?" Then wait for the answer to come from the only place it can: your heart.</p>
<p>answer - be athiest
"all thinking men are athiests"</p>
<p>and why the heck are u talking about kids in HS!?</p>
<p>
[quote]
"all thinking men are athiests"
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think St. Thomas Aquinas would thoroughly disagree with this statement lol!</p>
<p>I believe it's spelled a-t-h-e-i-s-t. Atheist.</p>
<p>Yeah, it's "atheist."</p>
<p>And I don't think differences in opinion about childrearing should make or break a high school relationship. Not that I know anything about high school relationships or anything. :-/</p>