Valentine's Day may have come and gone, but Twitter users are still reminiscing about catching feelings. The trending hashtag #FirstLoveIn4Words has been offering folks an excuse to wax nostalgic about the first person who hijacked their limbic systems and set their emotions on fire. Predictably, the responses range from bittersweet to just plain bitter.
Although relationships and sexual partners can fade from memory fast, that inaugural interaction with love is harder to forget. As we know from science, love is a chemical reaction in the brain, but why the hell love happens when it does is a far more complex question that is likely to elude explanation forever.
What science has also figured out is that our first love can have a massive impact on later loves. In 2009, British sociologists hypothesized that finding yourself in passion overdrive during an initial romantic foray might make subsequent relationships seem lukewarm. If that's true, then perhaps having a terrible first experience with love might help your future couplings, too! Whatever the case may be, most of us will never forget our first loves — even though some of us probably wish we could.
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