I’m 21 and my boyfriend is 36. I met my bf while I was working as a busser. The restaurant I worked at had karaoke every Friday and trivia every Saturday and he came in for both every week. The first time I remember seeing him he was singing Barbie Girl (both parts) in full Irish garb (yes a kilt) and it was so hilarious that I came home raving about “a six foot tall man in a kilt singing Barbie Girl.” He had been going to this restaurant for about 10 years with his best friend and I had only been working there around 4 months on my first Friday shift. We actually became friends over our mutual hatred of The Office. I actually asked him out on St. Patrick’s Day this year which my whole family found bizarre because I had literally never dated anyone before. Our first date was Fun Depot which was so much fun! I was super awkward and I forced him to take the Sorting Hat Quiz and the patronus quiz (he’s a Ravenclaw w/ polar bear, I’m Slytherin w/ beagle). I found out a little over a month in that he had been going out with this other girl too because he had a one month rule (date around the first month until you know if you really like someone) which I thought was fairly reasonable. The other girl lost her mind though and tried to drunkenly assault him. Then she tried to say we could all be friends, but talked about us both behind our backs. Then she apologized and continued to talk bad about us. Now she pretends to be friends with me mostly because she knows that if it came down to it our friend group would chose me over her (they have all said this). We both agreed that we didn’t think we would click as well as we do. We both like video games, cooking, working out, singing (even though he is admittedly bad at it), go karting, bowling. We have similar senses of humor. He’s a Marine and my dad was a Marine so we have similar methods to self discipline and leadership methods. We honestly make dates out of donating plasma and getting coffee. We each have a cat and we both collect Pop Figures. He helped me get my GED and I helped him when he went to a national karate tournament. Our birthdays are even only 12 days apart. Honestly, no one in our families really thinks our age gap is weird. Most of our friends didn’t bat an eye. Strangers think it’s bizarre and gross and all that, but who cares? I’m really glad this group exists because we don’t have any external issues, but internal issues could always arise that other people who are closer in age might not understand. As far as our age gap, I’d say our height gap is a much bigger issue (he’s 6’0 and I’m 4’11).

This is us. His niece and one of my best friends took and edited this picture.