Having a relationship is something we seem to worry about from an early age. The worry doesn’t stop until you find your “somebody.”

As a child of divorced parents, I worry because I’ve seen how a relationship can fail and tear people apart. That isn’t the only way to experience the fear or pain of a breakup, obviously, and I think we all go through a few of those in our lifetime.

I don’t want to harp on the negative, because a relationship can be a beautiful thing even if it fails in the end. It becomes a learning experience that you get to look back on and be happy that you got to share the time that you had together.

Most relationships follow a similar pattern that begins with both people realizing they are fond of each other. Then they dance around the issue with a high level of awkwardness. At least that’s how it has generally gone for me.

Once you get over that, it’s on to the honeymoon stage, where neither person can do any wrong, you spend every possible moment together, and you might even do things you’ve railed against in the past, such as having the dreaded baby talk. But there is a point where all of that wears off and you find yourself in that first argument. All of a sudden, things just got real.

Hopefully you and your significant other can get through that first disagreement and then find something that you can share together. In Laura Abel’s case, she and her boyfriend, Neal, seem to disagree mostly on their taste in music. He’s a Dead Head, she’s a Radiohead. But one thing the two can agree on is their favorite radio station and the tunes they hear on it. That station just so happens to be WTMD, and this week Laura and Neal will stop by the studio to chat with me about the songs they can always enjoy together.

The Black Keys “Your Touch”
Mason Jennings “Fighter Girl”
DeVotchka “Till The End of Time”
The Strokes “Hard To Explain”
Kings of Leon “Milk”
Radiohead “ The Bends”
Tom Tom Club “Genius of Love”
Pixies “ La La Love You”
311 “My Stoney Baby”
The Doors “Love Her Madly”

Join Tyler at 8 tonight for the Thursday Night Mix Tape on 89.7 WTMD, listener-supported radio from Towson University. Submit your mix tape at wtmd.org.

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