Stories of First Love: Stolen Glances, Pounding Hearts and Shy Smiles!!

When I was due to write my first post, I would spend nights pondering, “What would be best to go first?”.

All I could do was stare at the ceiling with zero answers. The sleeplessness had me reminiscing of the first time I sacrificed my sleep. That ecstatic feeling which kept me up all night. I couldn’t help but smile.

Yes, it’s the first time I fell in Love! It all came back gushing to my head, the late-night texts, the chit-chat that went on for hours, all in a hushed tone of course! The time when the lyrics of songs seemed to make sense all at once. A time when I woke up early just to find a way through my unruly hair. The time when my stomach knotted just at the sight of him. A time when his smile would have my heart pounding and my eyes would mirror the shy smile that would spread across my face.

First Love: A flood of emotions that just hit us and left us all giddy.

Thinking back, all of us had the same yet a different experience when we first fell in love. Maybe, it had to do with the fact that it was the first time we opened up as an individual to a person; A space that we did not realize was in existence. The first time we let our guards down without fear which is perhaps the reason why it remains unforgettable.

First Love comes with its share of bittersweet stories. While jotting this down, I wondered why not get a little share of those! After all, life is nothing but a big fat book of stories… ain’t it?

I asked a few people with varied experiences to share a little something that came up to them when they thought of first love. Here it goes:

The One I Cannot Have

We fell in love back in college, at a time when love was about letters and not Whatsapp emojis. But being from different communities, our parents did not approve of us. We did not want to venture forward disheartening our families either. We parted ways and never kept in touch ever since.

I met him after 20 odd years at our college reunion and for a heartbeat, it was as if nothing had changed. I know all this sounds right out of a movie, but that was what it was. We talked for 2 hours straight. It had me surprised, 20 years: That’s indeed a long time; The world had changed and yet our love was still the same: “pure”, unaffected by the complexity of life.

We are both happily married today, but occasionally I do catch myself wondering what could have been if he had never left.

D

- 45 years

Innocent Sweet Love

When I think of my first love, I guess I was more in love with the idea of “Love”, than actually in love. It was more about relating Edward from Twilight to this guy I had a crush on. It makes me laugh now… the crazy things I did back then. But then, the beauty of it was in that innocence. I loved fearlessly, I was not concerned about where we were going or how our relationship would alter my career choices. It was simple, it made me smile!

-S

21 years

An Ugly Heart-Break

First Love brought in more of bitterness than sweetness into my life. Though it left me with a gnawing heartache, looking back, it made me who I am today. It was the first time I got a flavour of the real world which is far from rosy.

I was irrevocably in love with him when he took advantage of my sincerity. It hit me hard, for days I mourned and in fact, for quite a long time I stopped believing in love altogether. Ever since I have been on guard and extremely cautious about who I give my heart to.

-R

28 years

First Forever

My first and only love is my high school sweetheart, who also happens to be my husband. It’s funny, for the longest time, we were best friends and yet I did not realize I was actually in love. When he asked me out, I was bewildered. It was then that I realized how much in love I already was.

The word “First Love” warms my heart with our fondest memories. Right from our favourite corner in school to the cozy corner back home. Our birthdays, those days we struggled with our long-distance relationship, that first hug I got when I met him after months apart and so many more! The memories of our first love are still in making and will remain so forever.

-K

25 Years

Well, there may be some of us out there who are yet to experience this first. But most of us do have a little something when we rummage through our memory lane.

But, there is this “one question” which always pops up when I fondly remember those days.

Do I really miss the feeling of first love or just the person I was back then, innocent and unaware of the callousness of the real world?

Let me know your thoughts about the same. : )

Hope you enjoyed the read!! Also, a big thank you to everyone whose inputs made this blog post possible.