in

You Were My First Love and I Thank You For That

All those times we looked up at the sky, looking out so far we felt like we could fly.

 

First love is an odd concept. Love in general is something I have spent years guarding myself from. Despite that and how many times I tell myself or others that I’m happy on my own at the moment, which I am?—?I am finding myself and starting to live my life for me and I am happier than I’ve been in a very long time?—?I want the romance. I want love, I want a marriage and a family. I am not anywhere near being ready for that right now, but eventually, it is something that I want. I always have. I just haven’t met that person.

 

It has been something I’ve been thinking a lot about, particularly today?—?for reasons very clear to me?—?which is why I am writing this quick post. April fourteenth is and always will be a big deal to me. Which brings me back to the whole ‘first love’ thing. People say you never forget your first. Your first love stays with you always and I never realized just how true that was until recently.

 

This boy, this love?—?he is a love so pure and eternally innocent. A middle school crush turned best friend turned skinny love. He came into my life at a time when I needed the emotional connection to someone more than I thought I did even at the time. Looking back at it now, if I didn’t have him then, I don’t know if I would have made it through my parent’s divorce or my downward spiral of a relationship with my mom. I know for a fact I wouldn’t have survived my dad being diagnosed with cancer without him. He gave me something nobody else ever had, and at sixteen, it was everything I needed.