First Love Stories: 8 People Share What Their First Love Felt Like
Everyone says you'll never forget your first love, and it's absolutely true. There's nothing like the feeling of falling in love, and the first time you feel that spark, you're changed for good. It's sort of an indescribable thing — everyone has a different first love experience, but the essence of it is the same. People talk about magic, about fire, about everything falling into place.
In honour of Valentine's Day, we asked eight people to share their first love stories. We got the heart-warming and the heart-breaking, and some funny stories along the way.
The Fling Turned First Love
My first love felt like speaking a new language, one that only we knew. It took months for love to come — at first it was a fling, never meant to be shared outside my dirty Boston sublet where we shacked up all summer long. But when school started back up in the fall, we didn't part ways like we'd planned. Instead, we spent all our free time together, exploring the city and each other. They told me they loved me one night in my bed by tracing the letters on my palm. I guessed each letter as they wrote it, stringing them together to name the feeling we both shared. Somehow, we both knew our love wouldn't last forever, but it didn't stop us from reveling in the moment. We shared a beautiful, supportive, and thrilling love for two years before it dissolved. The end was painful, gut wrenching, and now we no longer talk — the language we wrote together is dead, but I still remember how to speak it.
-B
The High School Sweetheart
My first love was my high school sweetheart. I was the new girl and he approached me at my locker to introduce himself. I became really close with his best friend and one day, while his friend and I were talking, I did a split. Eugene immediately excused himself from the conversation he was having with another girl and rushed over to say how that was amazing. He would walk me home (he lived a whole city away), cheer me on at my games, write me notes, talk about me wherever he was. Everyone knew Eugene loved and was with Darlene. I’ll never forget how one day I came home from my shift at the hospital and he messaged me to go downstairs and check the mailbox. Inside were 2 bags of my favorite candy. It meant the world to me. He would drive me around to the weirdest places just because I wanted to go. He paid attention to the small details about me and it’s something I’ve always loved. I'm so thankful for him being my first love because he’s shown me, for the most part, how I would like to be loved and that it’s possible.
-Darlene
The Best Friend Love
We met when we were 15, and it was the most slow-burn friendship to falling in love with the whole of someone. Like finding your best friend and falling in love with them. And then it was paperclip rings, and quiet moments at the beach, and dramatic first kisses, and dancing. So much dancing. Like the electricity sh*t but not cringe. Like real and premature ventricular contractions, heart skipping beats. Like looking in someone’s eyes and knowing that they aren’t looking at you, they see you. Like they aren’t hearing, they’re listening. Where even the most ordinary moments feel extraordinary. It’s like meeting someone’s brain and, even if they’re totally different, it just makes sense. Five years later, I still love him, and it’s magical. Just magic.
-Anon
The Long Distance Lover
I met my first love at 11 years old when I was living in the Philippines. We got “together” (in the way pre-teens can get together) at 12, but then broke up when my family moved to Ireland. At 15, we wrote LETTERS to each other and got back together again and stayed together for the next five years! Not a happy ending, though. He ended up cheating on me. I also have to add that I wasn’t allowed to have a boyfriend because my parents were very strict, so it was a lot of sneaking around and asking my cousins for help so we could meet up.
-Danielle
The Check Yes Or No
My first love was a boy named John in elementary school. I thought he was the cutest boy in all of the fifth grade. I would try to play with him through recess and talk to him in class, but he just wouldn't give me the time of the day. One day, I was brave enough to write him a letter, literally a 'Dear John' letter. I asked one of his friends if they could give it to him and they did. I remember standing on the other side of the playground, waiting for him to read the letter, and I watched him take the letter and throw it in the garbage. I was devastated. My little 11-year-old heart was broken and I vowed to never speak or look at him ever again. Roughly 10 years later, a group of us contacted each other on Facebook and decided to meet up for a reunion. I saw John again for the first time after nearly a decade and we made up for lost time, catching up with each other and what we had been up to after high school. We dated briefly after that but it didn't work out. We were both in different places mentally. Although we are both parents now and just Facebook friends, I still consider him my first love and my first heartbreak.
-Megan
The Brace-Locking Romance
My first love was this boy Josh who dated all my friends. It was a very PEN15 situation. Finally, it was my turn to be his girlfriend. So, one night when my father was sleeping, we snuck out to the roof of my apartment building and kissed — it was my first kiss. Of course, being that we were both 13 years old, when we kissed our braces locked and we couldn’t separate ourselves from each other. We were stuck together! By the time we separated, my dad and the super busted us on the rooftop. I was grounded for a week, but still snuck phone calls to my first love in the bathroom at night and sat with him at lunch until he dated someone else. I knew because he sent her a note in home room. Young love is hard!
-Lisa\
The Short King
My first love was named Joey, and he lived around the corner from me. We grew up together and we always had a mutual flirtation. When we started middle school, he asked me out on a date… Finally! I had a growth spurt really early on and by the time I was 13, I was really tall. He hadn’t had his yet, and was four inches shorter than me. But that didn’t matter to me. When we went out on our first date, the usher made me buy an adult movie ticket for myself and a child ticket for him. Now, the reason why they made me buy the ticket is because they thought that I was his mother or older sibling because I was so much taller than him. Anyway, I was totally humiliated because it ruined the vibe. But, that didn’t stop us from dating for the next two years.
-Alicia\
The Spoiled Salad Love
I had a date with my crush in junior high school. We were going to hang out at the local arcade. Before I went, I was eating dinner with my family and I shook a container of salad dressing and the whole thing exploded all over my hair and my outfit. I tried to shower and change my clothes but I still smelled like Italian salad dressing. The whole time we were out he was asking me if I smelled what he was smelling — I said no. Needless to say, we never went out again because I smelled like a salad on our first date.
-Jess
In honour of Valentine's Day, we asked eight people to share their first love stories. We got the heart-warming and the heart-breaking, and some funny stories along the way.
The Fling Turned First Love
My first love felt like speaking a new language, one that only we knew. It took months for love to come — at first it was a fling, never meant to be shared outside my dirty Boston sublet where we shacked up all summer long. But when school started back up in the fall, we didn't part ways like we'd planned. Instead, we spent all our free time together, exploring the city and each other. They told me they loved me one night in my bed by tracing the letters on my palm. I guessed each letter as they wrote it, stringing them together to name the feeling we both shared. Somehow, we both knew our love wouldn't last forever, but it didn't stop us from reveling in the moment. We shared a beautiful, supportive, and thrilling love for two years before it dissolved. The end was painful, gut wrenching, and now we no longer talk — the language we wrote together is dead, but I still remember how to speak it.
-B
The High School Sweetheart
My first love was my high school sweetheart. I was the new girl and he approached me at my locker to introduce himself. I became really close with his best friend and one day, while his friend and I were talking, I did a split. Eugene immediately excused himself from the conversation he was having with another girl and rushed over to say how that was amazing. He would walk me home (he lived a whole city away), cheer me on at my games, write me notes, talk about me wherever he was. Everyone knew Eugene loved and was with Darlene. I’ll never forget how one day I came home from my shift at the hospital and he messaged me to go downstairs and check the mailbox. Inside were 2 bags of my favorite candy. It meant the world to me. He would drive me around to the weirdest places just because I wanted to go. He paid attention to the small details about me and it’s something I’ve always loved. I'm so thankful for him being my first love because he’s shown me, for the most part, how I would like to be loved and that it’s possible.
-Darlene
The Best Friend Love
We met when we were 15, and it was the most slow-burn friendship to falling in love with the whole of someone. Like finding your best friend and falling in love with them. And then it was paperclip rings, and quiet moments at the beach, and dramatic first kisses, and dancing. So much dancing. Like the electricity sh*t but not cringe. Like real and premature ventricular contractions, heart skipping beats. Like looking in someone’s eyes and knowing that they aren’t looking at you, they see you. Like they aren’t hearing, they’re listening. Where even the most ordinary moments feel extraordinary. It’s like meeting someone’s brain and, even if they’re totally different, it just makes sense. Five years later, I still love him, and it’s magical. Just magic.
-Anon
The Long Distance Lover
I met my first love at 11 years old when I was living in the Philippines. We got “together” (in the way pre-teens can get together) at 12, but then broke up when my family moved to Ireland. At 15, we wrote LETTERS to each other and got back together again and stayed together for the next five years! Not a happy ending, though. He ended up cheating on me. I also have to add that I wasn’t allowed to have a boyfriend because my parents were very strict, so it was a lot of sneaking around and asking my cousins for help so we could meet up.
-Danielle
The Check Yes Or No
My first love was a boy named John in elementary school. I thought he was the cutest boy in all of the fifth grade. I would try to play with him through recess and talk to him in class, but he just wouldn't give me the time of the day. One day, I was brave enough to write him a letter, literally a 'Dear John' letter. I asked one of his friends if they could give it to him and they did. I remember standing on the other side of the playground, waiting for him to read the letter, and I watched him take the letter and throw it in the garbage. I was devastated. My little 11-year-old heart was broken and I vowed to never speak or look at him ever again. Roughly 10 years later, a group of us contacted each other on Facebook and decided to meet up for a reunion. I saw John again for the first time after nearly a decade and we made up for lost time, catching up with each other and what we had been up to after high school. We dated briefly after that but it didn't work out. We were both in different places mentally. Although we are both parents now and just Facebook friends, I still consider him my first love and my first heartbreak.
-Megan
The Brace-Locking Romance
My first love was this boy Josh who dated all my friends. It was a very PEN15 situation. Finally, it was my turn to be his girlfriend. So, one night when my father was sleeping, we snuck out to the roof of my apartment building and kissed — it was my first kiss. Of course, being that we were both 13 years old, when we kissed our braces locked and we couldn’t separate ourselves from each other. We were stuck together! By the time we separated, my dad and the super busted us on the rooftop. I was grounded for a week, but still snuck phone calls to my first love in the bathroom at night and sat with him at lunch until he dated someone else. I knew because he sent her a note in home room. Young love is hard!
-Lisa\
The Short King
My first love was named Joey, and he lived around the corner from me. We grew up together and we always had a mutual flirtation. When we started middle school, he asked me out on a date… Finally! I had a growth spurt really early on and by the time I was 13, I was really tall. He hadn’t had his yet, and was four inches shorter than me. But that didn’t matter to me. When we went out on our first date, the usher made me buy an adult movie ticket for myself and a child ticket for him. Now, the reason why they made me buy the ticket is because they thought that I was his mother or older sibling because I was so much taller than him. Anyway, I was totally humiliated because it ruined the vibe. But, that didn’t stop us from dating for the next two years.
-Alicia\
The Spoiled Salad Love
I had a date with my crush in junior high school. We were going to hang out at the local arcade. Before I went, I was eating dinner with my family and I shook a container of salad dressing and the whole thing exploded all over my hair and my outfit. I tried to shower and change my clothes but I still smelled like Italian salad dressing. The whole time we were out he was asking me if I smelled what he was smelling — I said no. Needless to say, we never went out again because I smelled like a salad on our first date.
-Jess
