According to a casual Muse survey, 35.4% of students said they felt pressured to be in a relationship. This may cause students to find themselves in a situation they are not prepared for. As explained by UF Institute of Food and Agriculture Science says, “Teens face strong peer pressure to date and get involved in romantic relationships. This can mean that some teens may become involved in unsatisfactory relationships or may date frequently.”

“I think that people speculating on relationships from the outside are always looking to make them toxic,” communications sophomore Victoria McGovern said. “Eventually, they turn that way.” 

Our school has 1377 students compared to the average of 1716 in Florida public high schools, according to the Florida Department of Education. According to the Palm Beach Post, we have one of the smallest schools in the district.

“Even if you’re talking to someone, and you’re not sharing anything, people will know,” Wong said. “They’ll see it or people talk, which isn’t a bad thing, but it just feels like all eyes are on you.” 

Communications junior Ayan Payne said that in her past relationships, she let others get involved, which gave her a “heavy feeling when (she was) around this person.” She said this became one of the relationship’s biggest problems. 

“I think that I allowed people at school to judge me, and kind of sway my decision(s) within that relationship,” Payne said. “I think that when people know that you’re in a relationship, they kind of move differently and then try to insert themselves into your relationship.”

Others, like vocal junior Maria Clara Da Fonseca, think that students’ desire to date comes from academic pressure.  

“The pressure from school, like studying, we use that pressure (and say), ‘I want to be in a relationship, like that will be my escape from the world,’” Da Fonseca said. 

Other couples use online means to communicate and reach out to each other. However, strings senior Andy Gordon feels that when these couples see each other in person, there can be a strain, since they are used to talking through a screen. 

“I feel like it feels easier to be open when you’re online,” Gordon said. “When you’re actually talking to someone and interacting with them in person, at least for me, it’s harder to express the same emotion that I would express online.” 

There is also a disproportionate male to female ratio at our school. With 728 females compared to 387 males, it makes some people, like Wong, feel it is harder to find a relationship and by extension, more likely to have hurtful results. 

“Since they (girls) only get such a select group of guys, their expectations are super low,” Wong said. 

However, according to a Muse survey, 63.6% of students who have been in a relationship during high school feel that their relationship was healthy. 

“We have to know how to be able to get through those problems without being super controlling or being super obsessive,” Da Fonseca said. “We’re teenagers, but it doesn’t mean we have to be bad people.”