The first time I fell in love, was in 2006, with a boy named Jackson. He was the peanut to my butter, the boots to my Dora, the flip to my flop... or so I believed, back in Kindergarten where friendships lasted forever.

It started a few weeks before my birthday, when I was introduced to this boy, who had the biggest brown eyes I had ever seen. I was a goner from the start. Being the outspoken little girl I was, I walked straight up to him and demanded that he be my friend, because, who wouldn't want to be friends with me? Anyways, he said yes and I told him my name, and obviously I asked what his birthday was, I mean it was the proper way of knowing whether I had the right to boss people around or not. I couldn't go around not knowing! Are you kidding me? So I asked him and OMG his birthday was 5 days after mine... which meant.... I was the owner of yet another slave boy who must succumb to my whims, muahahaha. Fast forward a few weeks and I was still bossing him around, but the spitfire had quite a few comebacks, as he had a very annoyingly similar personality to mine. What a noob, thinking he could disrespect me in such ways? But I had to admit, he was very intriguing, this boy. Eventually the constant teasing became a little more endearing, for no one else was allowed to make fun of me but Jackson, and vice versa. This all led to the defining moment of my Kindergarten life, in which I would gain my first boyfriend. After graciously accepting to be the girlfriend of Jackson no last name, I was on cloud nine. Holding hands at recess was the best experience of my preschool life. And yet little did I know, that hugging him goodbye at the end of that day, would be the last hug we ever shared as a couple, for the next day he said that his father did not allow him to have a girlfriend, so we broke up.

Quite sad, really.

Even after only being together one day, Jackson had a tremendous effect on my life. Falling in love can mean many things to a person, and for me it was knowing the person he was. It wasn’t the one day that I got to be his girlfriend, it was the days before and after, when I got to enjoy the time I had spent with him. I may not know who he is now, but for six year old me, it was enough. The definition of falling in love changes as people change, and the experience is something I wish to gain, because it’s always worth the risk of heartbreak.