People have always told me that first loves are the most important loves out there. I have read articles about it, heard songs, seen poetry. They portray it to be the best love, romanticizing it to make it seem better than it really is. You see, when we are young we all want to meet someone and fall in love. Thats how all of the fairy tales end, am I right? You meet a boy, fall in love, the end. However, it is not as easy as that.

[Side note: If you are still with your first love, I am not saying you two will not end up together. It happens, and I am rooting for you!]

First loves are important, I don't mean to down play it too much. They do teach you so many lessons about love. They teach you how to love, and how you want to be loved. They are the love you experience before all of the baggage, and trust issues. However, first loves teach you these lessons the hard way, because oftentimes you do not end up with your first love.

Because first loves are also your first heartbreak. I don't mean a couple of tears kind of sad. I mean ugly crying with a tub of ice cream sad. The kind of sad that takes some time to recover from.

They are important. Just not the most important.

You see, second loves don't nearly get as much credit as they should.

Second loves are the loves that make you believe in everything again. When your world comes crashing down like that, you think you will never feel that way about someone else again. Its hard to see past it all at first. Second loves give you hope. Second loves teach you that first love won't be the last.

When I was 17, I thought I had the world in the palm of my hand. I was dating Joe Shmoe or whatever, and I thought it was the best it could ever get.

Until it wasn't.

It was also my first heartbreak, and at first I thought I would never feel that way again. You see, society teaches you to always put your first love in a special place. I thought it was something I wouldn't recover from.

Until I did.

I do not regret anything from back then, but I wish I could tell my past self how much better it gets. To not be so sad. That you do get over it. That it does stop hurting.

I have never been so happy in my entire life. I have never felt more love, or been given more love. I could never have imagined I would be where I am today.

If you are just getting over your first love, trust me when I say that it does get better. If you think he was great, just wait until you meet the real deal.

And hey, if you are anything like me, sometimes your second love teaches you that your first love wasn't really your first love after all.