I'm a 18-year-old male and I'm feeling uncertain about my girlfriend, who is also 18.

I deeply care for my girlfriend, and we’ve been together for five months as high school sweethearts. I do my best to ensure she feels included and loved, especially since she’s dealing with family issues; her father left when she was around 15 or 16 due to constant fighting between her parents, which created a toxic environment that led to their divorce. This experience has left her feeling as though anyone might leave her at any time. It’s been a few months since we graduated, and she often expresses her loneliness, feeling that she has no friends, or that the friends she did have have drifted away. While I’m more than willing to support and comfort her, I sometimes find myself questioning our current situation and what the future holds. I make the effort to see her almost every day, even though she lives about 7-8 miles away and I don’t have a license. My love for her drives me to do this. However, around four months into our relationship, after the initial honeymoon phase, I’ve encountered some challenges. We’ve had a couple of major arguments that, despite my apologies for everything—even things she did that hurt me—I feel have not been truly resolved. I’ve noticed her sensitivity makes it difficult for me to express my feelings without causing her distress. She tends to cry often, and it pains me to be the reason behind it. Lately, I’ve found myself thinking that I could be with someone who would make me feel more like an equal and wouldn’t place me in uncomfortable situations. I catch myself comparing her to others based on societal beauty standards, which isn’t who I want to be, and it brings me frustration and self-hatred because I genuinely love her and envision a future together. Ultimately, I want this relationship to thrive for both of us. We’ve made mistakes, but all I want is to be a source of support for her without these troubling thoughts clouding my mind. I dread the idea that we might break up simply because we struggle to address our issues in a mature way. Right now, my biggest concern is whether we can overcome these challenges together and not let something small jeopardize everything we’ve built. I need guidance to ensure we can move past this and strengthen our relationship.