i'd like to further this question by asking if anyone's first love went well
My first real relationship went extremely well. We fought a bit towards the end but mostly due to the stress of me leaving for college. We remain close friends today and we both have a habit of randomly confiding in each other about work, our current relationships, our dissatisfactions in life, etc. I trust his opinions and views on most everything. The first time I saw him after we broke up I couldn't shake the feelings that OftenBen described in his post. We would talk and be fine for a bit and then get hurt about one thing or another and stop talking for a while. It took a couple years before we could really talk and not be tippy-toeing around the pain. When we first met I was 15 and he was 22 and we worked together. We quickly became close friends and remained friends for 2 years before we accidentally had sex and decided not to wait anymore to try a relationship. We were so in love as friends that we knew it would end up that way but we wanted to wait until we were both more mature. He was coming out of his first real relationship (that lasted like 5 years I think) and we wanted to be solid. Sometimes we ask each other if we could have "made it" if we had waited until we were older or better but chances aren't great. I ended up in New York for 4 years and he stayed in LA and a lot changes in those years. I cherish the time we had together and glad I got to be in a relationship with him even if it didn't work out in the end. I have yet to find someone who is so similar in terms of goals, ratio of cuddling in bed vs partying hard, taste in movies and books, and general geekiness. One of our favorite dates was to go to Fry's on payday. I still find I can talk to him about anything and he's on the same page. It's surprisingly hard to find someone who you can just talk with for hours and hours and hours and days and years and still have the same respect for each other in the end. Even if we were both single now, we wouldn't work. We've both grown and changed too much and he's probably going to end up marrying the girl he's with now. But that's okay. He taught me a lot about love and hurt and the world and I wouldn't trade anything for those times.
hahaha. oh god. maybe at a meetup and a whiskey snuck under the table.