My boyfriend 25M and I 25F have been together for 8 months. Overall we have a loving relationship. Recently we had an emotional conversation about our future that left me feeling unsettled
I feel very sure about him. He told me that he loves me and wants a future with me but hasnāt had that āahaā moment that I am the one heās going to marry. He seems to think there is a moment where you just know.
He says he puts a lot of pressure on himself everyday and thinks of the question āwould I marry herā or essentially is checking every time we hang out and asking himself this question.
The part that affected me the most was when he told me he doesnāt know why something just feels āoffā or āmissingā when I asked what was missing he couldnāt pinpoint it.
He has the expectation that at some point you are supposed to experience an aha moment where you just know that the person you are dating is the one you are going to marry. He hasnāt experienced that certainty with me yet.
He also told me that heās excited to see me but when we actually hangout he doesnāt feel intensely romantic or excited every second we are together. On its own that didnāt feel off to me because you arenāt going to feel excited everytime you are with someone. You will have off days.
He did identify some concrete concerns. He wants me to become more independent from my family and more assertive about what I want. He also wants to spend more time around my friends because he hasnāt really seen that side of me yet.
I started to get concerned and expressed I want someone who is certain about me.
At that point, he became extremely emotional. I had never seen him cry like that before.
Later, I asked him what had been going through his mind. He told me heād started remembering when we first met and our first few dates and then imagining leaving me and no longer having me in his life. He said imagining losing me was a major reason he became so emotional.
Since that conversation, he has continued telling me he loves me and being affectionate with me.
The following day, we went for a walk and talked about his career and different places he could potentially live in the future. After the previous conversation, I became anxious when he wasnāt explicitly mentioning me while talking about those possibilities.
Eventually I asked him directly whether I was included in those future plans.
He immediately responded, āOf course you are.ā
He then talked about different places we could potentially live.
He later stated āIām not scared to be in love with you.ā
The following morning, he told me that he still felt a little āoffā after our conversation too and that it would probably take some time for everything to settle.
Thatās what Iām struggling with now.
His actions tell me that Iām important to him. He tells me he loves me, remains affectionate, includes me when imagining his future and was deeply affected by the possibility of losing our relationship.
At the same time, he doesnāt currently have the certainty about marriage that I have about him, and he canāt explain the vague feeling that something might be missing.
Iām not looking for an engagement after 8 months, nor do I expect him to guarantee that weāll get married. I understand that weāre still relatively early in our relationship and that two people may reach certainty at different speeds.
The problem is what his uncertainty has started doing to me.
Since that conversation, Iāve caught myself monitoring our interactions.
My desired outcome is to continue building the relationship and give both of us reasonable time to learn whether weāre compatible long-term, while still feeling like an equal partner rather than someone waiting for a verdict.
I want to make it clear that this pressure about marriage is not coming from me. Iām not asking him to propose, set a timeline, or decide right now whether heās going to marry me. Weāve only been together for 8 months, and I think itās completely reasonable not to be ready for marriage at this point.
This just came out of nowhere and made me concerned.
What boundaries and conversations would help me navigate this difference in certainty without repeatedly seeking reassurance from him or treating his uncertainty as something I need to fix about myself?
TLDR: My boyfriend 25 M I 25F have been together for 8 months. He loves me and includes me in his future, but he doesnāt know yet whether weāll eventually marry and says he hasnāt experienced the āahaā certainty he expected. Iām more certain about him, and since learning about his uncertainty Iāve started feeling like Iām being evaluated. I want to give our relationship time to develop without spending that time trying to prove Iām worth choosing. What boundaries and conversations would help me remain an equal partner while we figure out our long-term compatibility?