Generally, high school relationships amount to little more than a memory to look back on fondly, or not-so-fondly, later in life. However, sometimes these relationships last and amount to something incredible. Math teacher Danielle Giangiulio is one of the few people who are lucky enough to marry their high school sweetheart.
“I was in high school for a year when we were dating and he was in high school for two years when we were dating,” said Giangiulio. “We were together for six years before we got married.”
Going into their relationship, Giangiulio had no idea that the boy she was dating would one day be her husband.
“I was going into my senior year and I told myself I was not going to date anybody, that I wanted to go into college single, so the relationship was kind of a surprise to me,” Giangiulio said. “We started dating October of my senior year, so we were together for almost a year by the time I went off to college. By that point we both knew it was getting much more serious and we wanted to try and stick it out. I don’t think there was any expectation necessarily that we were going to 100% get married but we knew there was something special there that we wanted to hold onto, that we didn’t want to let go of.”
To make their relationship even more impressive, the two have stayed together the whole time, without breaking up even for a little while. However, they faced several challenges in the process.
“The first year was an adjustment especially because he was still in high school,” Giangiulio said. “He would come up and visit me in college for like five hours on a Sunday and so after that it would be two weeks, three weeks of not seeing each other.”
After her husband graduated from high school, the two once again faced separation as they attended different colleges but they made it work.
“The distance was about the same between our colleges and my college and home so the distance was about the same,” Giangiulio said. “It was definitely easier when both of us were in college because we both had that independence.”

On September 13, 2013, Giangiulio’s high school sweet heart asked her to marry him.
“We had a tree that we used to go to when we were in high school; we would go and sit by the river and talk and hang out, so he took me down to that tree to propose,” Giangiulio said. “ I was so excited to be by that tree again because we hadn’t been there in forever so I ran up to the tree and was like ‘come sit down with me, let’s just sit down by the river’ and he was like ‘hold on, come help me with something.’ When I went to go help, he got down on one knee and proposed. He actually had his best friend, the guy who was the best man, in the bushes videotaping the whole thing.”
For all the students currently in high school relationships, or who may enter into one, Giangiulio offers advice.
“Know who you are and know your independence,” Giangiulio said, “ Know there’s a lot of growth that is going to happen when you go away to college and you should be willing to let that growth happen. If you try and stifle that other person’s growth there’s going to be a lot of resentment that happens. You need to be willing to grow and change the way you’re meant to grow and change in college and be honest with yourself. If that change separates the two of you, go your separate ways. If you’re able to grow the same way, and grow into the same interests and be your own person while still being together, then fantastic. You need to be able to be your own person.”