Netflix’s ‘Forever’ Brilliantly Captures One Tough, Underexplored College Transition Dilemma

Without spoiling it for readers who have not yet seen the show, Forever is excellent, definitely worth the time investment. The Netflix series is about Justin and Keisha, two teens who meet during their junior year in high school. They are (technically) a pair of virgins from different socioeconomic circumstances who fall in love. It is cute and complicated.

I will withhold specific details for readers who choose to find nearly 6.5 hours to watch this fantastic Netflix show. What I will disclose, though, is that the eight-episode series offers a window into what it is like for two young first-time lovers to navigate the process of applying and being offered admission to separate universities—fulfilling their parents’ dreams while suffering the heartache of having to go their separate ways. In addition to this, the show has many more higher education story lines.

Deciding whether to apply to historically Black colleges and universities or exclusively to predominantly white institutions is one. Managing the pride and pressure of being the first man in one’s family to attend college is a second. Determining the feasibility of earning a sports scholarship to an NCAA Division I university and being subsequently drafted by a professional sports league is a third. Weighing the options of enrolling in college within a few months after high school, taking a gap year or skipping college altogether to pursue career passions that do not require degrees is a fourth. There are others—but to avoid a spoiler, this feels like enough details to intrigue prospective viewers who are especially interested in the show’s higher education topics at the intersection of race, class and gender.

The romance story line reminded me somewhat of Penn State University professor Jennifer Crissman Ishler’s study on the “friendsickness” that many adolescents experience as they leave behind treasured relationships with significant peers who choose different colleges or decide against pursuing higher education after high school. Like Crissman Ishler’s research, Forever reveals the simultaneous excitement and grief that young people encounter during this unique time in their lives. The biggest difference is that the Netflix series is about first-time lovers as opposed to platonic friendships.

Because high school romances rarely prove to be sustainable or as permanent as the young people in them think they will be at the time, many adults are likely to dismiss much of what Keisha and Justin experienced as some version of silly teenage puppy love. For some reason, this series seemed different. If nothing else, it brought romantic dimensionality to the college application and choice processes. It highlighted a fascinating set of variables that are too often dismissed as either unserious or inconsequential. It was neither for Justin and Keisha. It likely is not for numerous young couples whose introductory love gets derailed as college requires them to split.

The television series invites at least four researchable questions:

1. How do romantic relationships influence high school students’ college search and choice processes?
2. How many young lovers who choose different colleges ultimately persist to longer-term romantic relationships?
3. Among those who are successful at doing so, how do young people sustain romantic relationships with partners who are enrolled at different institutions?
4. To what extent might young people attribute attending different colleges to the dissolution of their first romantic relationships?

In the show, Keisha and Justin are Black heterosexual teens. This raises another pair of researchable questions: Are there differences in how high school couples across racial groups navigate and make sense of the sustainability of romantic relationships with young lovers who attend college elsewhere? Also, are there differences between heterosexual, same-gender and otherwise queer couples as they transition from high school to separate colleges? Forever is situated in Los Angeles, America’s second-largest city. Do various aspects of what Keisha and Justin had to navigate play out differently among college-going couples from small towns?

Forever is cinematic gold. It is beautifully shot, which is to be expected from Regina King, its extraordinary Oscar-, Emmy- and Golden Globe award–winning director and executive producer. Few are as great as her at presenting the beauty of Black communities and the people who live in them on screen. The cinematography is at times intoxicating, at others simply marvelous. Also, Mara Brock Akil, creator of the hit shows Girlfriends and The Game, has once again demonstrated how phenomenal she is at capturing the richest interactions between Black people on television.

Noteworthy is that the 2025 Netflix series is based on Judy Blume’s 1975 novel, Forever. The book and streaming adaptation could help higher education researchers, college transition professionals, first-year seminar instructors, RAs and residence life administrators, parents and families, and young people themselves more deeply understand how first-love high school experiences complicate college application, choice and transition experiences. Some students enter college grieving the first-time lovers and childhood friends they left behind. Justin and Keisha will offer more instructive insights into navigating this in season two, which Netflix has announced is underway.