[Always *]

It is only 2 years. To put it in perspective, I dated a guy 1 year older than me, another guy who's 3 years older than me and my current boyfriend is 1 year younger than me... I have another friend who's fiance (who she's been dating since she was 14) is 3 years older, my best friends husband is 3 years older, another friends husband is 6 years older, my other best friends babys dad is 7 years older, and the list goes on.

We really don't live in an era where having super narrow age gaps in relationships is important any more.

That said, the age you are at matters a lot, especially in terms of maturity. When you are 13+ I think it is ok to date someone who is 2-3 years older (ex. 13-16, 14-17, 15-18), but someone who is 17 w/ a 20 year old some how seems creepy - in my opinion, I can't help but wonder why someone who was supposed to be done high school years ago is still doing hanging out with teenagers and why hasn't he/she moved on, the exception would be if that couple started dating while both were in high school, so obviously there are considerable limits to what is considered socially acceptable - like once you hit your 20's it tends to be more "ok" to go up to 5-7 years difference in relationships.

Any how, my point is that you are, in fact, dating within a range that will be considered socially acceptable by most people. Because peoples social groups tend to be within around +/- 3 years (roughly, could be 2, could be 5), it is understandable that, of course, your chances of wanting to date someone a little older or younger increase