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And They Called it Puppy L-o-o-ve
< ….cue Paul Anka or Donny Osmond…. > …. Remember when you were a teenager in puppy love? Oh! You couldn’t stand to be away from the new person in your life! You knew you would love each other forever – but the rest of the world that was getting in the way of that love. THEY thought you were too young, but you knew better! …. And they called it puppy love Oh I guess they’ll never know How a young heart really feels And why I love her so It was the highest of highs, finding love for the first time! Like no other, you couldn’t imagine feeling any better than you felt at that point in your life. Hormone-driven passion… the dopamine, serotonin, estrogen and testosterone… Giddy with new-found love, you took chances and made stupid decisions…. And, as happens with any risk… sometimes you got caught in compromising positions – sneaking out, passing notes in class, or even the ultimate in getting caught when you thought no one else would be home…. At the extreme you might have even paid an “ultimate” type of price. Your reputation, a teen pregnancy, a total rethinking and reshaping of your future…. Of course, what we all know about puppy love is that it doesn’t last. The reality of puppy love is that you eventually have to deal with the real world (like parents and money!) no matter how distasteful that might seem and no matter how much it appears, at the time, to shatter your dreams. Few puppy love relationships last longer than a blip on the radar of a lifetime. Yet, we learn so much from the experience. Eventually, you did fall in real, mature, let’s-make-our-lives-together love. Initially it might have felt like the same as that first puppy love, but it evolved far more maturely, when you were old enough to understand the long term benefits and consequences, and use that wisdom to make mature decisions, most likely with support from those around you. Together you learned that keeping your relationship intact was hard work, and required…