Day 2a - Your First Love, in great detail

My first love is the only other person I've loved besides Tracey.

My first love and I met when I was a few months shy of 19 and she had just turned 21.

My first love was my third girlfriend and I was her first.

My first love was half Filipino and taught me how to make her favorite Filipino dishes and how to say 'I love you' and 'My armpits are stinky' in Tagalog. My first love was 4 inches taller than me and I often had to stand on my tip-toes a bit to kiss her. My first love had an athletes body and wore a lot of knit caps over her shaggy black hair. She lived in jeans and hooded sweatshirts. She had a tattoo of a Japanese style tiger that took up most of her left calf.

My first love and I lived together in a one bedroom apartment in a building built in 1911. It was on a block between a park, a hospital where my mom works, a street that once literally divided the white section of Tacoma from the non-white section, and the most crime ridden neighborhood in Tacoma called Hilltop. We lived on the fourth floor and there were a million steps to our apartment. There were built-ins and pull-out beds and a clawfoot tub. The previous tenants did not disconnect their telephone service and her dad had an AOL account that he never used so we had dial-up forever.

My first love and I had two cats, both of which have been re-homed as she couldn't take them with her and I was unknowingly allergic.

My first love and I eventually moved up in the world and lived in a two bedroom fourplex in the nicer area of Tacoma while I went to school and we both worked. Her younger brother came over a lot and they would get stoned and play video games for hours.

My first love and I went to Mariner's games and Canada and Hawaii and river rafting for her birthday. She loved Dave Matthews Band and we would go see them at the Gorge every Memorial day weekend.

My first love would surprise me by slipping money into my wallet for me to get pedicures and draw me bubble baths in clawfoot tubs with lit candles on the bathroom vanity.

My first love stayed in Tacoma for six months after I moved for college. I wanted her to use that time to reflect on our relationship and decide if she wanted to move down with me.

My first love and I lived with my best friend from childhood and another friend for a year while I went to school and she worked for Nike.

My first love and I wanted different things in life. She loves adventures and spontaneity. I do, too, but not as much. My first love wanted to live in a condo with less upkeep and travel and never have kids. I want an old house filled with babies and a giant backyard that my wife mows. My first love was more passive than me and tried her best to avoid conflict. I want someone who will tell me to shut up when I'm being unreasonable but know they still love me.

My first love and I ended things somewhere between our sixth and seventh year as a couple. I put all of her things in the dining room until she finally found a new place to live. My first love and I tried to stay friends but we couldn't. Not full-time, anyway. My first love now lives with my childhood best friend which makes things slightly weird.

My first love showed me what I wanted in a partner, both good and bad. My first love showed me what I was good at as a partner and what things I needed to work on. My first love helped me understand what love and commitment and partnership are more than four or five less significant relationships ever could have.