Vertebrae

When I was 14, I had a girlfriend named Jane. I told her I loved her, she told me she loved me. And we did. What we were feeling was the pinnacle of our emotional lives up to that point. The working definition of the word “love” had just been elevated. It was all we knew of love. So, therefore, when we said “I love you”… We were being honest.    Then came a new girlfriend. And I looked back at my 14 year old definition of love and sort of laughed… Because NOW I loved THIS girl… Because the experience was  SO much different than the previous one.    Then came a new girlfriend. And this girlfriend’s name was Elyse. And I REALLY loved her. She was different. She was wife material. And that feeling—that new uncharted waters type of feeling—became what “love” meant to me. Elyse became my new definition of love.    And there we were, getting married, in love. She was my new standard. And all previous girlfriends and those definitions of love were laughable. Because that’s how life works.   We experience something,