Grow Up, Let Down, Set Back, Move Forward....Part 1

By my 16th birthday, I had a friend who was anxious to take me out on my first date. He wanted to take me to the movies (his choice of movie), he bought me candy that he liked, and then he expected a kiss at my door. Sadly for him, his first date with me ended in utter disappointment.

My birthday is at the end of August, and this same boy had mapped out my Junior year to be his girlfriend, which he never really cared to ask me my feelings on the situation. What I contributed to the relationship was a friendship, which he read into it was sadly so much more.

The best part of school starting up was to attend the Friday night football games with all of my friends. It was at a football game that I ran into a boy I met at Lagoon one summer night who was a friend that had joined my group of friends. He was not my type and so when I was around him at Lagoon, I didn't blush or flirt with him like all the other girls in our group. In fact, when I was able to talk with him he would point out and talk about a girl that he liked from the school he attended who was also there at Lagoon, and I would point out that he could do a lot better than what she was flaunting at the park that night.

When I ran into him again at the football game, I found out that he was joining my group of friends for Homecoming and had asked that girl from Lagoon to be his date. Ironically enough, he asked me out on a date that same night and then informed me that he asked the wrong girl to Homecoming. When we were actually at the dance, our friends lined it up so we could have one dance together while they distracted his date and from that point I started into a relationship that labeled me as having my first boyfriend.

It didnt' take very long for Brian to find out about this boy, and Brian was not happy. But there was nothing he could do about it. Brian was serving a mission in Alabama and had to concentrate on his service there. But I knew I was being closely watched and reported about by the means of Jordan, Brian's best friend.

On so many levels, I regret that relationship. I missed so many opportunities in my life because I wasted so much time on a relationship that was immature and heartbreaking. As I look back, we both did not have (nor have I seen any youth) have the developed emotions for a healthy and strong relationship. Hence now I understand why a Prophet of God counsels the youth to not date until they are 16 and when they are 16 to group date. Our Prophets also counsel to not have boyfriends or any serious, steady relationships until you are preparing for marriage which does not happen until you are out of high school. Relationships that are steady have a higher risk of leading into physical intimacy that a young teenager should not have to deal with. Thankfully, I have no regrets about my virtue and protecting my chastity. Which sadly, I had a few friends who could not say the same.

I had dated this boy for almost a year, when I found out that he had sparks with another girl while I was away at a National Competition. 3 days after attending Business Week with him, he broke up with me (the first round). The worst part of it all is that he and I were on and off again for the next 5 months, in which the middle of all of that chaos, Brian returned home from his mission. And what happens next is a hard story to tell.