Refound Love

Nothing reinvigorates the soul like reconnecting with your first love. In this age of Facebook, Twitter and MySpace (does anyone use that anymore?), finding long-lost friends has become quite easy. We can see pictures of our high school cronies, the hot girl from freshman year stats class, even what the “cool” science teacher does in his free time outside of school. None of that is quite like getting a friend request from the person that you thought was the “one”. Relationships have come and gone in the intervening years. Each one is compared, for better or worse, to that first love that got away. Even if your life is wonderful, you may still hold a candle for that first person you thought you couldn’t live without.

So sentimental, you say? I didn’t mean for it to happen, but over the last couple of weeks, I’ve returned to my first love. My heart has never quite found a way to get past it. I’ve tried and tried to fill the void, but I’ve kept longing for a do-over, a return to the past and how things were. The elevated heart rate, the butterflies in the stomach. They all came right back in an instant, as if they never left. The craziest thing: My wife totally approves! She’s even joined in a couple of times.

Yes, there is nothing like returning to your first love. After nearly a decade, stepping back on the track felt like a dream. I’ve missed that 400m oval and, you know, I kinda think it missed me back.