15 Heartfelt Stories That Prove First Love Leaves an Indelible Mark

People often say that first love is the purest. For some, it’s just a fond memory, but for others, they’re lucky enough to turn it into a lifelong relationship. No matter the outcome, stories about those first butterflies in the stomach are always captivating.

• I was in love with my classmate. I didn’t know how to reveal my feelings and just teased her. At graduation, I ruined everything: I made an offensive joke. Then I moved to another city, graduated from college, and tried to build relationships with other women, but without success.
  After 5 years, my classmates decided to organize a reunion, and there I met her. She looked even more beautiful! And I made the most reckless act of my life: I asked her to marry me in front of everyone. And she said yes, shocking our classmates even more.
  Later it turned out that she loved me very much too. Now we’re doing well. We got married almost immediately, had 2 beautiful children, and recently celebrated 10 years of marriage. We love each other more and more every day. I regret only those 5 lost years. © Overheard / Ideer
• We were 13. We both came from really bad homes. Our parents didn’t like that we were dating and did everything to keep us apart. Then one day, her parents decided she was going to go live with her aunt in New Hampshire. I got told about an hour before she left. She left me a phone number, but eventually, her aunt changed the number changed.
  I spent years on the Internet trying to find her. This was before social media when the best you could have hoped for was to stumble on her AIM account. I eventually started doing searches on MySpace for anyone her age in the town of New Hampshire. I’d start messaging them one by one, asking if they knew this girl. For a long time, I got no responses, or they never heard of her.
  Then one day I got a response from her new boyfriend, oddly enough, and he put me in touch with her. We experienced a very passionate re-emergence of our feelings and had a long-distance relationship for about 3 months. Then we lost touch again for about 5 years.
  Then we found each other again and were going to make plans to be together. Then she told me that I was inadvertently bringing back her childhood trauma that she couldn’t be around me anymore and that we shouldn’t talk. I was 28 when I lost her again. © Zonerdrone / Reddit

• I was 5 years old, and I went to summer camp. There was a boy, about 3 years older than me, doing martial arts. One day, a couple of minutes before bedtime, he somehow went around the counselors, opened the door to our room, and threw me a note. The girls crowded around me and were like, “Come on, read it out loud.”
  I realized then that it would be ugly to tell others about what was written to me personally. And then I did one of the most shameful things in my life. To make sure that no one would take it away from me, I tore up the note and put it under the mattress. I never found out what was written in it. © Kseniya_m / ADME
• An ex-boyfriend, my first love, dumped me after a year of a relationship. And today he showed up and said he was ready to start over because I passed the test of not dating other guys after our breakup and suffered because of him. He read somewhere that this is the sign of true love in a woman.
  Yeah, I suffered terribly. But I just closed the door on him. And wept after that. I still love him, but I’ll find a way to get rid of this feeling. © Overheard / Ideer
• I fell in love for the first time when I was at school. Before I met him, I was a straight-A student, and then, according to the law of the genre, I lost my head and had no time to study. By the end of the year, I learned that the object of my affection was moving to another city.
  For 2 years, I couldn’t forget him, my grades dropped. And suddenly by chance through mutual acquaintances, I learned that he was going with his family to a ski resort on winter holidays. I found out the name of the hotel, and the city, and by some miracle persuaded my parents to go there too.
  I saw him after so many months, and he was surprised and happy to see me, too. Now he is my fiancé, and he believes that we met by sheer luck. Let it be so, but I know that everyone is the creator of their happiness. © Overheard / Ideer

• That was so long ago! We’re still friends and hang out every so often. He feels like a cousin or extended family member to me now. I love him as a person who has been part of my life for the last 12 years, but I have no romantic feelings toward him.
  He’s not married, but he’s dating an awesome girl. I’m glad I met him, he was a really important part of my life for a long time and helped me through some really tough times. © Forward_Ad6168 / Reddit
• When I was 16 or 17, we made a stupid pact to get married if we were both 30+ and single. She ghosted me over 15 years ago. I randomly got a Facebook DM last week from her saying, “He,y I just got out of prison. You remember our promise?” No, I don’t remember. © Unknown author / Reddit
• When I was a teenager, I fell in love with the most beautiful girl in college. I spent all my money on gifts to her. And she just used me while dating other guys who were richer than me. I barely managed to forget her.
  She wrote to me 10 years later and asked me out. And then I decided to take a closer look at her social media page and saw her photo in a wheelchair. Turns out she couldn’t walk anymore. She got in a car accident 3 years ago.
  I was so furious. So, she was so hopeless that decided to write to her old boyfriend after she was abandoned by all her rich guys. I refused to meet her, I cut all ties with her. I’m still angry. © Overheard / Ideer
• My first love is my wife. We started dating when we were 16 (I’m 33 now). We’ve been married 7 years, and have hardly ever even fought. It’s been perfect. I can’t imagine it working any other way. © Atari_Ferrari / Reddit

• Back in middle school, I had the biggest crush on this one boy. I was never really interested in dating or boy craziness, but he was different. He made me so happy when he was around, and I thought about him all the time. Of course, being in middle school, I was painfully awkward and shy, so I couldn’t bring myself to do anything about my crush.
  Near the end of 8th grade, word got to him through a mutual friend that I liked him, but he was painfully shy as well so nothing came of it beyond everyone knowing we liked each other and calling it “dating.” The next year we moved on to high school, and I was still hopelessly crushing on him. Things got even more awkward and we drifted apart.
  Sophomore year, another guy asked me out, and I dated him for 2 years. Eventually, I realized it wasn’t a good relationship and that I still had feelings for my crush. I broke it off with the guy and told my crush how I felt. That was 6 years ago. He felt the same way, but adolescent awkwardness got in the way for both of us.
  We’re moving in together in 2 weeks, and planning to get married. I love him so much and can’t imagine my life without him. © nekobecca / Reddit
• I dated a boy at school. But then my parents sent me to another city. At first, we texted each other, but then it went quiet. And now I came to the city of my childhood. My friend was like, “Do you want to see who your Mike married?” Of course!
  We go to the grocery store, and his wife is behind the cash register. She stared at me and suddenly said, “Excuse me, aren’t you Olivia? I recognized you at once. Mike has a lot of your photos. And a whole bag of letters. I read them all, it’s so interesting! Mike keeps them all safe. How long are you going to stay here?”
  I was very embarrassed and said that I was leaving right away, waiting for the bus. The woman said goodbye to us with visible relief. © staloweselo / Pikabu

• We were high school sweethearts, but we broke up shortly after high school because we were no longer good for one another. It was an ugly breakup, and we went several years without contact after I left the state. 5 years later, my mother sent me a box of my stuff, and one of his old creative writing notebooks was mixed in with it.
  I reached out over Facebook to ask if he might want it back, and from there, we became friends again. 10 years later, we’re still friends to this day. © MoonMuff / Reddit
• She left me after three months (high school), got married ten years later, had two kids, and I went for coffee last week with her and her husband! I had not seen her since 1988. She’s still beautiful, her laugh has not changed, I kept having flashbacks of our first kiss, and I could see she was still complicated... but this was tons of fun! © papparmane / Reddit
• My first love was a girl I met at summer camp. She lived an hour away and since we were both 13, we relied on our mothers to shuttle us back and forth, swapping weekends at each other’s house. The next summer at camp, we decided that since we would both be going to high school the following fall, we should enjoy that summer camp time together and then break up.
  The last night, they had a farewell dance, and we spent all night dancing to every slow song. I still think of her from time to time but haven’t talked to her in over 35 years. © StuckInNov1999 / Reddit
• I broke up with him because I thought I was going to deprive him of the full college and life experience. I hated myself for ending it, but I wanted him to live his life. He met someone a few years later, they’re happy and living their best life. For me, it’s been hard, but I’m happy for him. We were going in different directions in our lives, we were young. I did a favor to us both, but I still love him, and I’d get back to gather with him in a heartbeat. © Soft_Fisherman_3087 / Reddit

Some people are fortunate enough to marry their first love, and this includes some celebrities. Their love stories are as romantic as any novel, with stars like Jon Bon Jovi, Samuel L. Jackson, Elizabeth Banks, and others leading the way.