Relationships

My Partner & I Only Texted Each Other Memes For An Entire Day & It Was Tough AF

Left: Courtesy Sara Barber. Right: Courtest @sexualising on Instagram

Here's something to know about me: I love, crave, and need constant communication, especially with my partner. We text every few hours throughout the day to keep each other updated on our lives. We also love to make each other LOL and love ourselves a good meme, so we decided to text memes only for an entire day to see if and how it would affect our relationship.

For me, communication is one of the most important aspects of maintaining a healthy relationship, and my partner and I pride ourselves on open and honest communication. However, while I do appreciate a good laugh, communicating solely through memes seemed daunting for me and I was a bit concerned about losing that concept of open communication that I value so much. But I've done experiments with my partner before, and we're both up to the challenge, for better or for worse.

Usually, we text each other the latest celebrity news and funny screenshots from Instagram or Facebook. The occasional text throughout the day makes me feel confident and secure in my relationship. It's just a simple, tiny gesture that really goes the extra mile for me. In general, my partner loves a good cheesy text and hearing about my day at work, but I'd say I'm definitely more of a texter than he is (he prefers phone calls, surprisingly, but they are way more difficult to arrange when we're both working).

However, when it was time to gear up for the day-long experiment, I became anxious about what this would mean for our communication. Would I feel frustrated that I couldn't text my partner, or would I feel anxious knowing that he wouldn't be able to personally text me throughout the day? After all, what makes memes great is that they're so broad and apply to everyone. Texts are more personal and intimate, and that's why I love them so much.

Alas, it was time to start the experiment, whether I liked it or not.

9 a.m.

We did our experiment on a weekend, when unfortunately, I had to be up bright and early to get ahead start on my law paper (I'm a full-time student undergraduate student graduating in December). So, what better way to kick off the experiment than with a good ol' meme about being exhausted? Besides, the bags under my eyes are always designer.

11 a.m.

While I was writing my paper, my partner was doing some work before his afternoon grad school class, so he was busy, too.

Not going to lie: I missed texting my partner! We were long-distance for 10 months, so I'm no stranger to the frustration of not being able to interact with my partner 24/7, but this experiment was equally as hard, and probably more frustrating, since we had the ability to see and communicate with each other way more often, but purposely chose not to text.

I love sending sweet little messages during the day, whether they're flirty, silly, or just plain cheesy (sorry, not sorry). And while there are memes that fit into each of these categories, I hated how they weren't really personalized to our relationship.

1 p.m.

If I'm being brutally honest here, I was about ready to quit around 1:00 p.m. I was trying to plan out grocery shopping and what to make for dinner, and it was super frustrating to not be able to text my partner about what he wanted for dinner or what food we needed from the grocery store. Ugh.

3 p.m.

This was literally me come mid-afternoon, so I guess this meme happened to apply to me pretty well. I struggled with not being able to ask my partner how his class was going, when he'd be coming back from class, and just generally conversing.

However, my partner did not seem to mind as much as I did. In fact, he found it amusing to be going back and forth only using memes , and took it more light-heartedly than me, which is definitely a good thing for him. To help distract myself, I kept doing my homework, watched some Netflix, and called my mom until my partner and I were finally reunited IRL after a meme-filled day.

My partner arrived back at my apartment from class around 5 p.m., and at that point I actually took a power nap since I was drained from writing my paper. I was glad the experiment was over, and quite honestly, I'm actually sick of memes at this point. While memes are a great source of humor and unite millions of people from around the world, I learned I prefer more personalized communication when it comes down to it.

Although I was frustrated throughout the majority of the experiment, it did teach me to be grateful for the many interactions my partner and I do have throughout the day. All the "checking in" texts and heart emojis may seem trivial at first glance, but I am so appreciative of those tiny moments and how they really do make me smile throughout the day.

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