u/Tinykittycum

I’m 24 and have been in my first relationship for just over a year. We had our one-year anniversary last month, and honestly, the relationship is great. My girlfriend is genuinely a great partner, and I have no complaints about the relationship.

The problem is that I’ve started feeling an urge to cheat. I want to be clear that I don’t plan to cheat. I’ve never arranged anything, pursued anyone, or made plans to do it. But the urge is there, and I feel guilty just for having it.

After doing some “introspection”, I think part of it comes from feeling like I missed out on an experimental/fun phase when I was younger. I was extremely introverted for most of my youth and didn’t really come out of my shell until later. My girlfriend was the first person I ever dated, and she was also my first sexual experience.

I’m also bisexual, and I’ve never actually been with a man. That’s another experience I find myself thinking about a lot. Overall, I have this feeling that I want to experience new people, new situations, settling down.
And that’s where I feel conflicted. On one hand, I feel like I’d be stupid to leave a relationship that is genuinely good just because I have these urges. On the other hand, I feel guilty staying with her when part of me is wondering what I’m missing.

I’m also scared of committing so young and potentially reaching old age having only ever been with one person, wondering what my life would have been like if I had explored more. At the same time, I don’t want to throw away a great relationship over a feeling that might eventually pass.

So I guess I’m asking: Has anyone else experienced this? How do you distinguish between normal curiosity/FOMO and a genuine desire to leave a relationship?

I don’t want to cheat on her. I also don’t want to make a huge decision based purely on anxiety or fear of missing out. I just genuinely don’t know whether these feelings are something I should work through while staying in the relationship, or a sign that I’m not ready to commit to one person yet.

*8 month relationship here* I am working part time at chipotle and in school and i try to hangout with my girlfriend on days I don’t work. Usually that leaves us with 3 days of the week to hangout and when we do hangout its around 4-5 hours on those days. She seems to not be satisfied with this however and always wants to hangout more asking me to hangout on days where i work, leaving not enough time for school. I should add to this that on the 4 days of the week we don’t hangout in person we still spend at minimum an hour or two on the phone in addition to the obvious daily texting so its not like its no contact.

Overall i feel overwhelmed between personal hobbies, right now for example im studying Mandarin Chinese, nursing school, my job at chipotle and my gf. It just seems hard to balance it all and i feel almost guilty as if im not giving her my all if that makes sense. She works a fulltime job but its like outside of that all she wants to do is hangout with me she doesn’t have any side hobbies or projects or anything to take up her free time. I do enjoy seeing her but there are also times id rather study and read my anatomy textbook. Or maybe after work i just want to have some alone time and make some progress with my mandarin but every off day already requires a big chunk being dedicated to her and i cant see myself giving anymore. Is this normal to experience or is this one of those signs that im just not into her or we aren’t meant to be together

Looking to memorize the same 4 categories (best actor,actress, best picture and best director) for every year would any specific mnemonic be best for this?