This is the first in a four-part series on long-lasting relationships.

In today’s society MySpace is a bygone social media that has fallen to the wayside, but it was the medium that junior Savannah Carroll-Gonzales first used to contact her boyfriend of two and a half years, senior Austin Herring. After she messaged him they began to text and realized how compatible they were for each other.

“I was first attracted to his charming looks,” Gonzales said. “The thing I like the most about him is his personality. He can make me laugh in any situation.”

The couple got together Aug. 25, 2010, and have been together for about two and a half years.

“Our first kiss was the night he asked me out,” Gonzales said. “We were in front of my house and after he asked me out he pulled me in for a kiss.”

It is a bit of a tradition for junior and senior boys to ask the girl they would like to go to prom with in an extravagant way. Last year Herring adopted this custom to surprise Gonzales.

“He left me a letter in my truck while I was at work and when I was leaving it said to go to his address from a secret admirer and he was waiting outside for me and we went inside and he had sitting out on his floor, candles spelling out prom with a question mark and bunch of balloons around it,” Gonzales said. “I was surprised and thought it was pretty cute.”

After so much time together the couple has had more than their share of arguments, but the both agree that having good communication and trust is the only way to stay together.

“Trust is important because when there’s no trust in a relationship, y’all both always assume the worst, and that causes fights,” Herring said. “Never raise your voice, be open minded, and just talk.”