Day Two: Your First Love, In Great Detail

Most of my first loves (yes, plural) were athletes. No, I'm not talking about pee-wee football players or Babe Ruth all-stars. I'm talking MLB, NFL, NBA, NCAA, and PGA superstars. That's right, I went straight to the majors! My dad has always been an avid sports fan, and so I, too, watched a LOT of sports growing up. Not that I'm complaining at all. It's probably why I'm 3-0 in my fantasy football league right now! My biggest and earliest sports crushes were definitely Brady Anderson (of the Baltimore Orioles), Gary Clark (Washington Redskins), Richie Sexton (Cleveland Indians), and Wally Szczerbiak (Miami of Ohio). I became unhealthily obsessed with their stats, ads, books, facial hair (okay, okay, just Brady's sideburns), community appearances, and pretty much any tidbit of information I could get my hands on. Looking back, it was kind of bizarre, but slightly more dignified than spending all day thumbing through Tiger Beat. At least I was learning about their sports, right?

I think my first experience with love towards an actual person I knew (and not a celeb) was my best friend, Ryan, from childhood. We grew up a few blocks away from one another and spent way too much time together. His parents were good friends with my parents, so we were pretty much inseparable. He used to talk me into playing hide and seek and basketball, and on days where he was being extra nice, we would do an art project together or play with Barbies for a little while. He used to make me laugh until I couldn't breathe (and almost peed my pants) and he was the person responsible for literally knocking the wind out of me for the first time (with a soccer ball). We had walkie-talkies that worked up to 3 miles away from one another, so even after we had to go home we could still talk. The only thing I didn't have was a ladder so he could climb right into my bedroom window (like Sam on Clarissa Explains It All or Dawson, of course). My dad used to joke that Ryan was his son because he was at my house more than his own.

When I was much younger, I used to just assume that Ryan and I would get married and live together because we were best friends. Obviously, I didn't understand very much about love and relationships then (and he's happily married with a one-year-old now), but it felt like a reasonable explanation of love at the time. Looking back, I wasn't far off, really. I still think that love can exist between best friends and that being able to laugh and have fun is one of the best/most important parts of a relationship. Having a simple outlook on love can be much more rewarding than overanalyzing relationships or playing games. I'm so lucky that my first love never ended in heartbreak and that we're still friends to this day.