Champe students are struggling to remain loyal and faithful to their significant others during their relationships. This issue has continued to progressively get worse as the school year continues, leaving students in difficult situations.
Those in relationships or who have been in past relationships, have noticed a significant increase in the lack of loyalty either within their own relationships or others’. This also helps students understand that there are many different types of cheating and each person’s definition of unfaithfulness remains up to their own interpretation.
“Cheating is something you do behind your partner’s back, something you know you shouldn’t do and therefore keep a secret,” Mental Health Writer Anna Drescher said. “The definition is quite straightforward but some people bend the definition to suit their needs.”
No matter how students choose to interpret their own meaning of cheating, most agree that the concept is wrong. They believed that, for the most part, cheating is typically a deal breaker, and some even go as far to say that it is morally wrong.
“Being in a relationship is easy and staying faithful to your boyfriend or girlfriend should also be just as easy,” sophomore Sindhu Vempuluru said. “I don’t get how someone could live with themselves after lying to someone they are supposed to care about.”
Students who have been cheated on strongly believe that there is only one reason as to why someone would cheat on another person: greed. They believe that the only proper reasoning behind wanting to have more than one person at a time would be because they aren’t happy with what they have and believe that they are entitled to more within their monogamous relationship.
“I think that they thought it made them cool to get with one person and then get with another during our relationship,” anonymous source #1 said. “The other person also validated them a lot so I’m pretty sure it boosted their ego.”
While people continue to believe that cheating is wrong either way, some seem to find consolation when the other person they were cheated on with is unaware of their partner’s relationship. Students are able to understand the position of the unaware person and it helps them blame only the cheater for the situation.
“Thankfully, one of the other girls they were with was unaware that we were a thing,” anonymous source #2 said. “I was able to be mad at just the person I was with, and I’m actually friends with one of the other girls now after bonding over him.”
As more students continue to cheat or get cheated on, a noticeable pattern starts to become evident. They say that most cheaters use some similar techniques, and students try to protect each other by identifying clear red flags.
“In my experience at least, they usually reflect their own actions on you. For example, they will talk about how they think you will cheat on them or leave them,” anonymous source #1 said. “Evantally, they end up love bombing you, manipulating you and start to slowly isolate you so it’s important to make sure you look out for red flags.”
No matter how strong students try to be while dealing with these situations, most of them still do seem to be affected by what happened. They all make sure to learn from their mistakes and grow but they agree that there will always be unhappy emotions and memories associated with the past of being cheated on.
“To be honest, they made me feel really worthless as they continuously gaslit me and made me think I wasnt enough for them,” anonymous source #1 said. “I’ll never avoid obvious red flags again and I’ve learned from my mistakes. I will never be able to trust them again but it’s okay and important to move on.”
