Last Wednesday, Sept. 18, was National First Love Day. To celebrate, The Hurricane spoke to a few students about theirs.
Ayana Mays, a freshman majoring in marine biology and ecology, said her first love was “with a boy.” She gleefully recalled the relationship.
The two were friends from ninth grade until the summer of 11th grade. She said, “He told me ‘I like you.’” Mays did not know how to respond. She described him as “a person you would fall in love with, but didn’t think I would.”
That changed around Nov. 2017 when she told him her decision. “I like you, too,” she said. The pair dated for one and a half years, but ultimately split due to attending different colleges. Mays said she believes one’s first love is “a slow fall in new territory.” She remains friends with him.
First loves do not always involve falling in love with someone. Sometimes, first loves are falling in love with something.
Maria Geoly, a junior majoring in marine science and biology, reflected on her first love– the ocean. Geoly defines love as “All you think about. Everything revolves around it.”
That is exactly what happened to her as a child. She vividly remembers the excitement she would feel with anything related to the ocean.
“All my clothes had either fish on it or were blue. Everything I had as a kid related to the ocean in some kind of way. I was obsessed,” Geoly said through laughter.
The ocean sparked a warm and light feeling in her, she said. Her love was an obsession with compassion, and she says it hasn’t changed.
“Loving the ocean and what it encompasses is beautiful to me because my feelings for it will never change,” Geoly said. “My love is unrequited and independent of anything other than myself.”
Other times, people find love in animals.
Mallory Blum, a junior majoring in psychology, experienced her first love when she was two years old. Blum had a cat named Dat who was her best friend for about 19 years.
“I wouldn’t have learned to love humans if it wasn’t for my cat,” Blum said. “He didn’t care if I was angry or sad. Cats can love you just as much as a dog or person would.”
Blum ended with this: “Boyfriends came and went, but Dat stayed. He taught me to forgive and there for someone in a time of need.”
The definition of love is not finite. Happy belated First Love Day, Canes.