Switched-On Magazine

Shane Williams was 17 when he first saw the girl of his dreams walk into his biology class. She was an exchange student that recently arrived from France. Shane immediately new he had to talk to her. Weeks after their first encounter Shane and Gwen started dating. Everyone in school was envious of what looked like a fabulous relationship. They went to every football game together, talked constantly on the phone and where always spotted holding hands and making out around corners of the High School halls. Unfortunately, at the end of the school year Gwen was destined to be heading back to France. Gwen knew that the relationship between her American boyfriend and herself would not last oversees. So, the week before the last day of school, Gwen broke the news to Shane that she no longer wanted to be together. Shane was devastated. Gwen had been his first love, his first kiss, and his first heartbreak. Shane couldn't eat, he couldn't sleep, he stopped hanging out with friends, and going to games. Shane could not understand why Gwen didn't talk to him about this earlier, and why she didn't want to give the relationship a chance to survive. He wanted to call her so many times, but new it wouldn't help. He just couldn't understand why she didn't feel the same way he did. Eventually by the end of the summer Shane started to move on, hanging out with friends and occasionally talking to new girls.

Relationships at every age in life can be full of emotions, good and bad. As Shane found out in his relationship with Gwen you have to let them go in order to move on with your own life. Many times your ?first? relationships can be the hardest to get over, because you and the person have shared so many 'new? experiences together there is a lot more emotions involved and you will probably never forget that ?first? person throughout the rest of your life.

Although Shane and Gwen seemed to exhibit the ?perfect? relationship, there are many teens that experience other difficulties throughout their relationships. Jealousy issues, emotional, verbal and domestic abuse, pressure to have sex, are just of few problems that teens all over America are dealing with. A lot of times, teenagers look to their parents to see how relationships work. In some cases they see loving people who care and respect each other, in others they see abuse, mistrust and anger. Sometimes this can result in abusive teen relationships. If you find yourself in a dangerous and abusive relationship you need to get help. No matter how nice the guy or girl seemed to be in the beginning of the relationship, there is no excuse to mistreat or disrespect the other person anytime. Being young is about having fun, meeting new people and exploring new experiences. Being in a relationship while your young is about the same things. So find yourself in healthy relationships, and if they happen to not work out learn from it and move forward, as they say, there are a lot of fish in the sea, and being young, you will have a lot of time to fish.