I had a great summer after my junior year in college dating a girl who had just graduated from high school. When fall came, she started college in Texas and I went back to school in Indiana. We kept up
conversation, letters, and e-mail (because this was 1994), but she moved on rather easily (and understandably) with her college experience and basically exited our relationship. For her it was the natural next step, but I wasn’t ready and was heartbroken for a long time afterward.
The other thing I’ll say is that you might want to think about priorities in your life. No matter what choices you make, you’ll be living with yourself the longest and will be subject to your own judgments far more than anyone else’s. What I mean by this is that you can put your goals and aspirations first and trust secondly that you’ll find a relationship that supports/doesn’t interfere with them, or you can put things like a relationship first and work within that context to realize the other things in life that are important to you. So, for example, you can start this relationship and potentially have your energy invested in two different places or decide that your college experience should be your focus and work to find a relationship in that context.
I’m not saying one is better than the other, and really the decision is pretty automatic for all but the most ambitious of people in your shoes (in favor of throwing caution to the wind and dating the girl). My point is hopefully to elucidate what your choices can mean, and that it is possible to put your goals and aspirations at the center and have relationship opportunities appear that require less compromise than you’d find otherwise.
My 20s were a very volatile time socially with many people entering and exiting my life. Were I to do it again, I’d give more weight to developing my interests/focus and seeking people who shared and supported them.
Just MHO.