First Love

One never forgets the first time they love someone.

She and I were sitting, on a bench. It was a beautiful summer day; the sky was cloudless and a vibrant bright blue, and the sun shined like a golden beacon casting its light over earth. The trees and grass in the background flourished with life, their leaves and blades green with health. Through the trees I saw a river, flowing with its rapid current, the bridge there seeming to be stuck into it like a stick into sand. I could hear the life around me; birds chirping, the trees rustling in the soft, barely detectable breeze, the gurgling and flowing of the river.

I turned to her, and beheld pure beauty. Her forest green eyes looked back into mine, the color the same as the flora around us. Her smile sent a wave of emotion into me as I gazed into her eyes. I pulled her closer, and in the split second moment of what happened next, the world around me seemed to vanish into nonexistence.

I whispered to her, holding her eyes with mine, three words that I had never uttered before. Three words, so simple, but with so much power behind them. My entire being trembled inwardly with fear, and anxiety, for I had never felt such an emotion for another person before. I never wanted to let the feeling go.

I told her, the first person I had ever meant it to, “I love you.”

She had a moment of surprise in her eyes, and my heart skipped a few beats in uncertainty of her reaction. That incredibly short moment felt an eternity, and all I could see was her, and all I could hear was the rhythm of my nervous heartbeats. But she looked back at me, smiled, and whispered back to me, “I love you too.”

In that moment, I realized what love is, and what it feels to love. It is the most beautiful thing one can ever experience. I kissed her then, and held her in an embrace that I wished could last a thousand eternities. I felt whole, and more alive than I ever had before.