First loves, smooches and smiles

Love comes at different times, in all shapes and sizes.

by Michelle Burns assistant features editor

First loves for many people mean looking way back to grammar- school days and sometimes even before that. Love can mean different things for different people.

Sophomore Tamika Warner met her first love through a friend. His name was Jason Green. They were friends first for about a Tamika Walker month before they started dating. He was 17 and she was 13 years old. Even though they were only together for three months, she knew she loved him because after they broke up he kept trying to ask her out for two years, but she always pushed him away. He was also Tamika's first kiss. It was a soft peck on the lips. She thought it was interesting because he never pressured her into anything. "That was good because a lot of other kids at that time were getting sex, so this was different," Warner said.

Randee Gallo who teaches Drug and Alcohol Abuse said, "Bob Oppenhimer was my first puppy love."

They were in sixth grade.

She used to imagine herself walking down the aisle and him stan~ing at the altar in a tux. They used to pass notes in class. Gallo tries to remember not to make fun of kids because her granddaughter, who is 5 years old is now madly in love with one of her classmates in kindergarten.

"She says she likes him because he's got great hair," Gallo said.

Sharon Potter who is going for her second certification and second major, talks fondly of her first puppy love.

"I was in second grade and I remember thinking he was terrific. He had these freckles. I was fascinated by him," Potter said.

It only lasted a couple of weeks. Once she decided to share a secret with him. Potter told him that her father was going to be Santa Claus for the school Christmas party and he told everybody. After that she did not really like him that much.

Sophomore Jamie Fagan said, "I was 13 and we were together for five years."

He said I love you first. She did not say it then, Jamie Fagan but she felt that she knew it.

"When I knew I could tell him anything I could tell my best friend. I guess that's when I really knew," Fagan said.

They broke up when she came to college and he stayed home. People said that would happen so they tried extra hard to stay together. It is ironic because she thinks that is one of the reasons why they broke up.

"Everyone says you will always have a special place in your heart for your first love and I know that is true, but I couldn't see us together now," Fagan said.

Transfer student Tanya Rice is still with her first love.

"My first love's name is Victor Kapanzhi and we've been together for a Tanya Rice year and five months," Rice said.

They met at Blockbuster Video, where they both worked. One night he followed her around the store asking her out until she said yes. For their first date, they played pool and went to the movies and saw "Seven." They went to Farleigh Dickinson University to visit a friend of mine and they stayed up until about 2:30 in the morning.

"In mid-sentence he just said, 'I love you.' It really caught me off guard. I knew that I loved him even before we started going out," Rice said.

Senior Donna Schaeffer said, "Joe Carter was his name and I met him at a young group dance in sixth grade."

T h e y Donna Schaeffer talked on the phone a lot and went to a couple of basketball games and one other dance. In high school, she was baby-sitting for her friend's older sister and her friend Rachel came over. She walked in with her boyfriend, Joe, and she thought it was hysterical.

"I told my friend about it later and she thought it was funny too, but we never told him," Schaeffer said.

Freshman Joe Elliott met his first love while working at a summer camp in Clary ville, NY. He was 17 and she was the older Joe Elliott woman, 19. They were friends at first and then he asked her out. They were going out for two months before he told her he loved her. Their first kiss was a bit awkward because the brim of his hat hit her head when he went in to kiss her. After laughing, she leaned over and kissed him.

Junior Jim Adair and Mary Kay met through mutual friends when going out to a bar one night. After taking her home he said, "I'm going to marry that girl." They have been married for 13 years and have two children, Patrick, 9 and Jimmy, 8.

"I guess you can say it was love at first sight," Adair said.

Philology professor Harvey Lape remembers his first real love at the very young age of 12. He was going into seventh grade and she was in his class They used to sit in the park together and hold bands.

"We didn't know what to do. We did all the things we saw other people doing like hugging or kissing," Lape said.

He felt that they were too young to do anything about it because how much freedom can you get at 12 years old?

"It was my biggest love until I was in my late 30's," Lape said.

The editorials, viewpoints and opinions published in Loquitur are the views of the student editorial staff and the individual writers, not the entire student body or the faculty and administration.