My girlfriend [13F] and I [13M], we've been dating for a long time now, since november last year. I like her, I think she likes me, but I feel like it might starting to fade. I don't want it to fade, but I do think it is fading.
I enjoy spending time with her even with all the restrictions, but I won't lie and say I can't feel a tiny bit of me treating it like an obligation. I think it's normal for the excitement to die out a bit after a while, she was my first girlfriend after all, but, there are some issues.
I don't want to break up with her because things are getting stale, but also I don't want to drag things out if they truly start to not work anymore. If in 10 years time I'm an adult, I wish I'd remember my first girlfriend with happy memories instead of just something that went on for too long, creating animosity.
The thing is, we're not at this point, not yet, but if she also feels like me, she knows it's inevitable, so it'll only speed up the decay. We have some differences and we worked well around them, I'm a lot more physical than her, i need contact, touch, while she doesn't as much so I fear my needs might make her uncomfortable, on the other hand she cares about many little things that I don't pay attention and maybe that bothers her. Even our hobbies, I like sports, football, golf, jiu jitsu, and I know she feels obligated to pretend to care even if she doesn't, she says she gets excited for me, it's such a big part of my life and I know it bothers her a bit. Also we have very mismatched drives, I do not push her to do anything she doesn't want, but that also means i'm left wanting a lot of the time.
I don't want to be single for other reasons too, as I said, I feel a need to be near someone. I don't know how long it'd take for me to start seeing someone again. I also don't know how to start the feelings we had a the beginning again, just make it as exciting as it was.
I talked to my dad, he says that relationships at my age don't tend to last long, he thought we'd be together for a month at most. He says that we are at an age where things change fast, that we change fast, and it includes our likes and dislikes, how we see the world, and that we shouldn't keep dating just because society says you should date. I feel like he's right, but he's also famously against me dating and will stand next to us to make sure he won't do anything fun.
There was a girl a while back who showed interest in me, but at that time our feelings for one another were much stronger and it prevented me from making mistakes worse than the ones I already had. If it ends, did I miss an opportunity? I believe I didn't, cause it's not about that.
I can't even talk to my friends about that, if anyone else my age I know personally gets to know it'll just make things go down even faster, so I feel like I don't have many different opinions.
TL;DR: My girlfriend (13F) and I (13M) have been dating since last November, but I feel our relationship is fading. I still enjoy our time together, but sometimes it feels like an obligation. We have some differences which might be causing issues. I don't want to break up, but I also don't want to drag it out if it's not working. My dad says relationships at our age don't last long because we change quickly. I want to remember my first relationship positively, but I'm unsure what to do.