Writing Assignment Due February 11th: Young Love

Recalling my first love is not difficult for me because I have only truly been in love once, and I still am. I thought that I was in love with my high school boyfriend, but after that relationship ended I quickly realized that I was not. After two years of short relationships and several “just friendships”, I discovered my first love. I like to think that it started as a friendship, but many people close to me assure me that we were never friends. It started as something different, and it still is. I met him at Fenway Park at a Red Sox game the summer before my freshman year at Penn State. I was leaving four days later because I started a semester early, and he was coming in the fall. We kept in touch slightly over the summer, but when he came in August we immediately became close. The reason I say that it started as a friendship was because we did not start exclusively dating until March, but looking back I always considered him to be more than a friend. After months of denial and not giving into the fact that we should be together, we decided it was time. I still remember the “big date” and when he asked me to be his girlfriend. Typical Penn State, he took me downtown to The Corner Room. Today I think it is terribly tacky and something I probably wouldn’t do, but back then it was perfectly cliché. Even though I had seen him almost every day and almost considered him a boyfriend, I was nervous. I was relieved to see, however, that he was too. I remember walking there from our dorm rooms, and the table that we sat at. We both knew why we were there, so before we even opened the menus he told me. I laughed at first because nothing felt different; we were so close and involved in each other’s lives already that it just felt natural. After that day I just felt more secure and comfortable that I knew where the relationship was going.
It is strange to think back to all of these details, almost a year later. A lot has changed in a year, but in a good way. There is much more invested between the two of us than there was that night, or even that semester. I look at that semester as the beginning, but this summer is what I attribute the most change to. When I think of the concept of young love, I think about this past summer. I can remember the night when I thought that I was actually in love and can recall many more details than I can about the Corner Room. If I ever had to pinpoint the most important “big date” in our relationship, this night would be it. I went up to visit him for the weekend at his house in Boston. On Friday night we went into the city for a Red Sox game, a passion we share. We sat out in the bleachers and shared a lot of laughs with an older gentleman and his middle aged son. The game was against the Royals, and they were probably the only Kansas City fans in the park. I remember looking at him and the way he joked around with these strangers with a different kind of smile. I could see qualities in him that made think further into the future, and it scared me. Since we parked a few blocks away, we left before the game ended. As soon as we left the park it began to rain so hard – no exaggerations, it was torrential down pouring. We tried to run for a block, but it was useless. We just stopped, completely drenched from head to toe, and laughed. I remember looking at him in this moment and realizing that this was much more than my first college boyfriend; I realized that I loved him. We finally got to the car, and began to drive home. I remember being the happiest I had been in a very long time, and that is a feeling that hasn’t really changed.