First Loves = Only real loves???

Do we ever really get over them, or the imprint they or the relationship leaves on our hearts, in our heads?

I can't help but wonder if everyone feels the way that I do... I suppose that it depends on the length of the relationship, what the couple went through. With my own experience it was back and forth, years apart, then back together, a roller coaster ride for years and years. Way too many issues stemming from the time spent apart... but amazingly deep love... an amazing connection... amazing enough, to tear eachother apart until it was ended for good. Yet, as I "move on" I still find myself comparing... feeling as if things are missing in a new relationship, even when they are the tiniest things. It's as if this relationship, the first love (which.. that term doesn't seem to do it justice), serves as some sort of outline that I use as a comparison to what kind of relationship I need... making it a bigger deal than it should be (whatever is "missing"). Sometimes this thing that is "missing" can be refreshing in the beginning. A welcomed change. But sometimes this fades... I can't help but think that there is something wrong with me. How can you move on and love another person, but feel like it will never match up to that other love... yet, survive through it, knowing that maybe you will never feel that much again... maybe you have to accept that this is still love... just a different kind of love? And of course... a different person who has struck something in your heart.

Hmmm... my thoughts stop there for now, or should I say, they scramble themselves too much to really write them down....