young love: entwined soulmates or destined for heartbreak?

Young love, often occurring during your school or college days can be reminiscent for many people. Whether our experiences are bittersweet or filled with pure devotion, our first love usually stays with us for the duration of our lives. That first handhold, kiss and hug can be groundbreaking for a young adult and teenager to experience for the first time. Our first love or heartbreak can be confusing to digest in the era of discovering who we are. The pressures which come with being a young adult and on the edge of seventeen become wrapped into one to create a bewildering experience.

Whether it started on the slow walks home or the timid flirtation attempts across the room during history class. Most people remember their first love differently; where you lived when it happened, whether your parents were still together and which school you attended. Key memories become riddled into your mind and can become a lovely sentiment to reminisce. Being in love for the first time teaches the foundation of trust, loyalty and treating your partner with respect and kindness. We learn what our love languages are and tap into our partner's colloquialisms and habits. Loving someone, especially for the first time, is brave. To open up your heart and take risks without knowing how the end of the road looks.

Can first love relationships thrive and last? Long term relationships require a diverse amount of communication, trust and a truckload of hard work to flourish. At a young age, couples can grow up and fall out of love just like how they fell in love. Our first relationships can teach us how to love another human being with kindness and affection. They teach us how to listen, console and be an attentive partner. These skills contribute to our relationship style and what kind of boyfriend or girlfriend we are.

Life can often get in the way of love. Factors such as dreams, ambitions, jobs and careers can pull us away from staying in a long term relationship. Sometimes, we can fall out of love and no longer feel the affection we once did for an individual. There are various reasons why our first relationship may not last like we planned out.

First relationships can thrive or flop but shouldn't be considered a waste of time or energy. Whether you split up or stay together, your first relationship should be viewed as a success. Loving someone is a constant learning curve and takes a lot of bravery. Being in love at seventeen can often feel like a scene in a movie that can be never-ending. But, like most movies, clips roll onto the next, and we have no choice but to move on. A timestamp of part of your life can behold resemblance and importance to things you were feeling and experiencing at the time. But at seventeen and likely to be optimists about love, anything can happen, and ultimately, a relationship can last a lifetime.