I met my first love at Dese.rt Wes.t Park the summer before our senior year in high school. I think he had been playing basketball in the gym, I walked by and he struck up a conversation. He later asked for my number and we began talking daily. He is from MS, but was in town for the summer visiting his Aunt. I like tall, dark men, and he definitely fit the bill. We hung out and got to know each other before he went back to his hometown.When school started we talked on the phone a lot until he racked up a huge phone bill and got his long distance privileges revoked. After that we were only allowed to talk on the phone occasionally. Once we went off to college, we were able to talk more regularly. In college, I also became very good friends with female cousin who went to the same university as I did and her dorm was walking distance from mine. He hated that we were close and she and I are still friends to this day. The summer after my freshman year in college, he and his Mom came to Phoenix for a family reunion. I believe we were in love at this point and at the time I had these very grandiose ideas about love.  I also thought we would be married by 23, and you know how that turned out!

First Love was an only child and as a later found out, a HUGE Momma's boy. Unfortunately his Mom didn't particularly like me (or any other woman he dated for that matter) which definitely caused a strain in our budding relationship. I was 19 years old and had never really had a serious boyfriend, so I was fairly naive. We had a good time initially that summer, but he was from a small town and went to a smaller college. Being in AZ was like heaven for him and unbeknownst to me, he started dating other people. There was an incident involving him meeting a girl at the club and going to the movies with her. I ended up showing up at the same theater with my friends and sat right behind them. We watched Nutty Professor 2, but I couldn't tell you anything about that movie! He explained it away by saying he ran into her when he was at the movies with his family... We were together the entire time he was in town, but once he went back home things definitely were strained.

I think we tried to keep the relationship up, but it went the way that most long-distance college relationships do. The last time I spoke he him was probably in 2004. He wanted to come visit me in Phoenix, but I told him if he came to AZ, he would have to stay with his family. We never spoke after that day. I saw some pictures of him on FB this year. His cousin tells me he is single with 2 kids from different women. I can say I dodged a bullet on that one.