I am an eighteen-year-old with a 37-year-old boyfriend. Is this normal?

Don’t worry about “normal.”

Instead worry about respectful, considerate, honors your independence/choices/consent, loves you and isn’t afraid to show it, and doesn’t think he’s “lucky” because he “snagged” a younger partner to take advantage of but instead is glad to be in a consensual adult relationship with another adult partner.

I don’t do ageism in reverse (i.e., discrimination against young adults based on their age). The push back you’re likely to get can be summed up in this article and in this other article. Yeah, the statistics are against certain types of relationships, especially those where the older partner (often male) is using their greater experience, knowledge, and privilege to hold the younger partner down/exploit them (often female).

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way.

Someone simply being older, all by itself, is not the core issue here, but rather, how that older person chooses to behave.

Enter the campsite rule:

In any relationship, but particularly those with a large difference of age or experience between the partners, the older or more experienced partner has the responsibility to leave the younger or less experienced partner in at least as good a state (emotionally and physically) as before the relationship. The “campsite rule” includes things like leaving the younger or less experienced partner with no STDs, no unwanted pregnancies, and not overburdening them with emotional and sexual baggage.

Enforce your boundaries, don’t take shit off of anyone, and insist on respect from him and every other adult you encounter. You’ve got this. No lecture is necessary.