My current boyfriend and I met online in May of last year. We waited until this January to be exclusive and make things official. When we met, he had just gotten out of a four year relationship and I was the first date he'd been on/first girl he'd slept with since his ex. I had just moved to our state and, after nearly 8 years of shitty relationships I just wanted to be single and play the field. We were both very honest about this and the fact we were going on dates with other people (though we didn't have anyone "competing" against the other, if that makes sense.).

In late December I finally realized how strong my feelings were for him and that I would no longer be able to see him unless things were made exclusive and official. The first week of January he came on a family trip with me, and on the car ride back we discussed where we were at (and made things official a few days later). Frankly, this worked perfectly for us. We got to see that the feelings we felt towards each other were real and we were no longer in the "honey moon phase" of getting to know each other. I moved in with him in February and we are currently planning a move to the Midwest next year.

I'm very happy with not only how things turned out, but how we allowed them to progress in a casual setting first. Had we not done that I don't think we would be as happy as we are now. We both had a lot of personal work to do and that slow integration allowed us to take care of ourselves first, figure out what we want (which was also helped by exposure to other dates), and see if that was truly in the other person.

That said, it's definitely not for everyone. Some people don't like feeling like they're a backup choice or they're all in and their partner isn't - all those emotions are totally valid and understandable. You just need to decide what's best for you.