The University Daily Kansan
Monday, June 3, 2013
1. The number of sides in a polygon is ___.
Page 3
STUDENT LIFE
Summer tests the relationship status of students
EMMA LEGAULT
elegault@kansan.com
Editor's note: This is the first article in a summer series that will explore college relationships and everything they entail: dating, hooking up, finding love online, social stigmas and more. This first article takes a look at how relationships survive the summer, whether couples are in long-distance relationships or share close quarters.
They talked, they dated, and two years later in summer 2012, Emmaline Rodriguez moved into an apartment with him.
He knew she liked elephants. When she showed up at his house a few days after Christmas, he surprised her with a small, wooden elephant he found at a garage sale, tied up with a silver bow.
Rodriguez, a junior from Emporia, said neither she or her boyfriend Nick Yoho, from Leroy, wanted to go back to their hometown. They wanted to give living together in Lawrence a shot.
Whether a couple is seeing each
other each day or the relationship lives and dies by weekly Skype calls, summer is a different playing field for testing a relationship. The months away from class give each partner a different perspective on being together now and in the future.
Playing house was fun until the real world began to set in. Yoho was fortunate, finding jobs at Acme and Third Planet downtown, while Rodriguez was struggling to find employment.
The apartment was lonely while Yoho was at work. When Rodriguez finally did take a job, it was a miserable one. She came home unhappy.
"I kind of took that out on him," she said.
Rodriguez said they didn't fight, but their moods didn't always sync up.
However, the experience of being in close quarters also brought them closer as a couple. They took a walk almost every evening, and experimented in the kitchen.
"We would make ridiculously weird, cheap dinners every night,"
SEE LOVE PAGE 4
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Emmaline Rodriguez, a junior from Emporia, and her boyfriend Nick Yoho enjoy spending time outdoors. The couple will be able to spend more time together during the summer months because they both will live in Lawrence.