Young love can feel magical—a beautiful, intoxicating emotion that makes people believe anything is possible. Stories of high school sweethearts staying together through thick and thin often capture our hearts. But life is about growth, ambition, and change. People evolve, chase success, and often leave behind the memories and relationships of their teenage years.
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However, one 17-year-old boy is prepared to reshape his future for the girl he loves, risking everything for a relationship he believes in.
A mother recently called into the New Heights podcast, seeking advice from Jason and Travis Kelce about a dilemma involving her 17-year-old son. He wants to change his college plans to follow his high school girlfriend to the same university, and his mother isn’t sure what to do. So, what did the Kelce brothers have to say?
Travis didn’t hold back. He strongly advised against the idea, urging the mother to stop her son from making what he called a big mistake. In his view, college should be about chasing your dreams, learning who you are, and experiencing personal growth, not about holding onto a high school relationship.
“College is a decision you have to make for yourself. It is a selfish decision that you have to make for the future or lane you want to take in life. Nobody should go to a school to follow somebody else. They should go there for the values that they see are going to be best fitting for them. Why isn’t she wanting to go where you’re going to college? Is there a trade-off here?”
Jason fully agreed with his younger brother but offered a more measured approach. He advised the mother to deliver Travis’s message diplomatically, encouraging her son to think rationally rather than issuing a flat-out directive.
“I agree 1000 percent with Travis. I think that’s what you have to say to your son as well. If you say, like I’m not letting you go to school, it’s not going to work out.”
Even Donna Kelce chimed in. She echoed her sons’ thoughts, adding that college is a time of exploration and self-discovery. According to her, if you enter that unfamiliar world with someone who makes you feel comfortable, you might never push yourself out of your comfort zone.
” I think if you are going to do the same thing and go to a college and have the same friends around you, you’re never going to have any growth. You are always going to have someone there besides you to help you through all those decisions. But when you go to college, you are totally on your own. You just kind of fail and then win. Sometimes there are little setbacks, there’s adversity, and you have to work through it.”
Growth, she emphasized, comes from making mistakes and facing adversity, not from playing it safe.
Jason Kelce added that college is about learning and degrees. Wanting to be with someone should never be the reason to go. If the relationship is meant to last, it will last in a long-distance relationship, and going to different colleges. But if that leads to a breakup, it wasn’t in the cards.
Sounds like a piece of solid advice from all three for that mother and her young, impressionable son. However, it will all come down to how she delivers it.
