Of First Loves

O tender yearning, sweet hoping!
The golden time of first love!
The eye sees the open heaven,
The heart is intoxicated with bliss,
O that the beautiful time of young love
Could remain green forever.
~Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

What's with first loves that they're never really forgotten, no matter the age, no matter how long the time has flown by?

Today, during our 30-minute lunch break, I heard my coworkers talk about their first loves. Get this, these coworkers are more than 50 years old and happily married with grown kids.

But when they talked about that guy they first fell in love with, I saw that sparkle in their eyes, that sparkle not often seen with older people who have seen the realities of life. I heard in their voices the exhiliration, the thrill of remembering him. And for a split second as they recount the past, I saw youthful faces aglow with happiness.

For a moment, this amused me. (Naisip ko tuloy, grabe, katanda na e kinikilig pa!) But then, as they each told their story, every one of them vying for my attention to listen to them share their love stories, it made me wonder, would I have that same glow, that same sparkle in my eyes, that same thrill when I think of my own first love, come the age of 50?

Hay. I probably would. Coz actually, till now, I still think of my first love. Not that I still love him or anything. I had accepted a long time ago that we could never be anything but friends. But I still smile when I think of him. And I must admit, I remembered the last time I saw him was on my last day in the Philippines, I still felt that chemistry between us. It doesn't matter that it was just probably a product of my delusions, but I still felt my heart jumped at the sight of him. :)