Your first relationship hardly ever works out and there’s many reasons for that. You’re usually pretty young and have no idea what you’re doing. You’re flying blind, if you will. You’re naive about the world, so you dive in, try to learn as much as you can and hope for the best. You don’t understand what you want out of a relationship or out of a partner. You just know that you like this person and you want to experience as much as you can with them.

A big problem in my first relationship was that I had an unrealistic vision for what a relationship was. I thought it was all lovey-dovey – constant affection, cute text messages, spending as much time together as possible and no conflicts. That, of course, is unrealistic and unhealthy, but you don’t really realize that until you experience a relationship and see it for what it is.

The good thing is you always learn a lot between your first and second relationships. You realize the mistakes you made, the unrealistic ideas you had about relationships and you learn what you want in a partner. The second time, you’ll be more selective when it comes to a partner and you’ll handle certain situations better than you did in your first relationship.

Tl;dr the first relationship hardly ever works, but you get experience and you learn a lot about yourself. You learn so much between the first and second relationships and you’re much more equipped by the time the next relationship rolls around. Personal growth is good.