Your First Kiss: What Was It Like?

Jane Doe

August 24, 2023 2:04 pm

my first kiss was literally last night at 18 years old. me and my friends went to go have a smoke in the woods on our university campus and there was a group of guys already there. one of the guys and i started chatting and we ended up laying down in the grass to look up at the stars through the trees. we talked about our lives before college and what we’re doing at our college. and before he got up to leave, he asked to kiss me and i said yes. his lips were so dry and so were mine but it was so sweet. i didn’t end up smoking much

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Kat

December 10, 2020 8:13 am

My first kiss was at Disney Springs. I was on my first date with my current boyfriend and we were having so much fun. We got chocolate, listened to live music, tried on hats, and he gave me his sweater. Later in the night when the stars were coming out, things slowed down. He took me to a little bench in a small romantic corner, near street lights and the smell of very good pasta. We talked and bantered and he kissed me on the forehead. I had so many butterflies! I told him not to steal my first kiss unless he was absolutely sure it was right. He said, I promise to respect your wishes. I told him I was perfectly ok with being kissed but again that he had to be absolutely certain. He let me cuddle up into him on the bench and we exchanged kisses on each others cheeks and shoulders. His lips brushed mine. I think I smiled and said something along the lines of “woah” and pulled him right back to kiss him again. It was a good kiss and came naturally. It’s one of my favorite memories and I am so thankful to him for making me feel so respected and loved.

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Christine

August 13, 2019 8:44 am

My first real kiss happened in 4th grade. It was at a pond with a bunch of other kids. We all rode our bikes to the pond and I was kissed. I remember nothing about the kiss itself but everything about announcing it to my family at the dinner table that night over tuna salad. For me, it was clearly a right of passage. I couldn’t wait to let my family know that it had happened and I was older and wiser because of it?

My first kiss with my husband happened at a party where I pulled him around back to the deck and kissed him. I made the first move. He is this big strong guy and I remember his lips were shaking when we kissed. He was so so nervous and NEVER would have made the first move!! Ladies… make the move… go after what you want in life… including your partner!!

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Lexi

June 28, 2019 12:26 pm

I no longer drink I stopped, at the time when this stuff happened I believe I was 15-16, I’m now 17.

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M

October 16, 2018 4:54 pm

My first kiss was literally the first week of college after going to an all-girls school for middle and high school. (And I was not very interested in kissing other girls) I felt like it was high time I had my first kiss (it felt like everyone else had already had theirs). But it was a bit of a rude awakening. And also very embarrassing as it was at a party in front of a lot of people. Since then I’ve had much better kisses, but my advice to my younger self on first kisses is that it doesn’t matter if you’re 12 or 25– literally it does not matter. The societal timelines of when “firsts” are “supposed to happen,” is totally contrived and meaningless. Love reading the other comments here as well.

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Sarah

July 19, 2018 6:37 pm

I remembered this post and had to come back here to share my story — I turned 20 not too long ago and had never been kissed. I felt like that was it for me — if it hadn’t happened by 20, it would never happen.
Then, I went to Paris with my sister for two weeks. She was really tired one night and went back to our hotel, but I wanted to stay outside and soak up the city. I sat in front of Notre Dame for a while, and a cute French guy came and sat on the other end of my bench. We struck up a conversation, talking about his work as a doctor and my love of Monet, and all the lights in the city turned on. Before we parted ways, we kissed, in front of one of the most beautiful monuments in Paris no less. Totally worth waiting for.

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aurora

June 17, 2018 6:41 am

I’m glad I’ve found some same experience. I’m 24 and conservative and thought if there isn’t some sort of commitment, I’d regret it. my first kiss was with a guy I hardly knew 2 days ago on our second meeting. it was exciting and also full of fear since that was not a feeling I have ever felt. soft and calm but strange and that was exactly what I was fear of, but now I know that this is the exact meaning of life. to risk and sometimes let it happen, to embrace unknown and trust yourself, I’m sure the heart knows the way.
he is a great guy honest and sweet but because I need to focus on my goal I’m going to end up seeing him and I’m sure, if I could go back in time, I would see him again and kiss him cause I don’t remember when was the last time I felt so at peace in the arm of someone.

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Maura

April 17, 2018 1:49 am

My first kiss was a stage kiss, but less staged than I would have liked it to be, performed in a really fun and quirky show, Love/Sick by John Cariani. It was my first show with my high school theatre department, two months into my freshman year, opposite a senior who obviously knew what he was doing. A week into the rehearsal process, my theatre teacher and director, who I would later find out was my fourth cousin, urged me to “just go in for it”. He obviously had not understood the first, second, or third time that I told him, that I had zero interest in kissing anyone on stage. So, after several minutes of arguing with my director (a huge no-no, as all theatre people know), I “went in for it”. In short, I managed to get an inch away from the senior, my “husband”, who seemed annoyed more than anything, before breaking out into a laughing fit. This act of nervousness was received very poorly, to say the least. It was met by a roll of the eyes from my partner and my director looking at me saying something along the lines of “Maura, damn it, you have to suck it up at some point, why not make today be that day!” It was clear that neither understood that this would not only be my first kiss on stage, but my first kiss ever, I was far too self-conscious to explain this to them (A massive mistake looking back on this). So, with the entire cast of this show, who I had only worked with for a week and would continue to work with for the rest of our high school careers, and my annoyed director, who was beginning to count down from three, watching, I leaned in, lips puckered, and touched my senior “husband’s” lips for what felt like a lifetime. Apparently, it wasn’t a lifetime, which was made very clear to me by my director who was very quick to tell me that it would have to be two or three times longer and that I shouldn’t pucker my lips so much, it “looked awkward”. And, with that, my partner, who seemed strangely comfortable, finished our scene in which I pulled a gun on him, shot it, and freaked him out, only for it to be revealed that it was a water gun and that I was not mentally stable (An eventful scene, right?). Rehearsal after rehearsal passed, I got more and more comfortable kissing my “husband”, I made the kisses feel like two or three lifetimes rather than one, I didn’t pucker my lips nearly as much. News spread like wildfire through the freshman class that I was kissing a senior in the school show, I got question after question about it from people I had never talked to, my friends became obsessed with my scene partner, my “husband”, my first kiss. All the while, I conveniently forgot to tell my parents that I would be kissing someone on stage in a show that they would be coming to see (Oops). On opening night, I was terrified, knowing that my family (Including my nine-year-old sister, who I think is still scarred by the maturity of this show) had come to see me perform in my first high school production and all of my friends and the entire freshman class was there to see me, the innocent theatre kid, “make out” with “the cute senior boy”. We’ll just say that the theatre was more packed than it had been for a show in years, and I was mortified. I kissed him, much to my parents’ surprise, and I made it through the show every night while it was running. It is kind of entertaining, the boy who I ended up dating for most of high school and was in this show, had seen my first stage kiss in that early rehearsal and had been my first real kiss a few weeks after the show closed, which was much much more effortless and enjoyable.

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Mikayla

March 13, 2018 11:52 am

I was 21 before I was ever kissed (for context, I’m almost 23 right now, so this is a pretty recent memory), a growing number that mortified me with every passing year.

Jake and I had been watching movies at his apartment. I was at that point in the relationship where I was completely terrified every time I saw him. Was I pretty enough? What if we kissed? He was 24 at the time, so whatever performance I was about to give was sure to be disappointing, I thought.

It kinda melted away that evening, because in the middle of an episode of the Office I fell asleep with my head on his shoulder. I woke up about an hour later: the show had automatically paused, and the room was dark and quiet. He hadn’t moved at all the entire time.

We talked for a few minutes, not moving, just listening to each other’s voices over the stillness. Then he asked, simply and quietly, if he could kiss me, so I picked up my and we kissed.

Many kisses later, I couldn’t tell you if it was good (it probably wasn’t), but I know that it was right. And, as I later found out, it had been his first kiss, too. I wasn’t so behind the curve as I’d thought.

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Courtney

March 6, 2018 9:09 pm

I just love reading all these vastly stories. All so unique and beautiful and heartbreaking and funny. Some so relatable and others so different from my own. Makes me smile thinking of young love.

Ours is my favorite. I was 17 (going on 18). We started dating the summer after I turned 16 (he was 17). He was the high school football captain, and I was a cheerleader who would also eventually be captain. It makes me laugh every time I tell people this because the look on their faces is always classic: that’s the opposite of who we grew up to be. At 16, I had been in the “popular” group since middle school but decided I was over the drama and wanted to meet new people and have new experiences (in our tiny Indiana hometown, ha). We were both the extroverted introverts who were kind of “outsiders” in a way (cue the John Hughes movies): he wrote poetry and skateboarded, I loved reading and old movies. My friend introduced us, and I remember he called me the very next day to hang out (the popular guys never called). We were inseparable from that moment. It was a classic summer romance. We drove around in our cars with the windows down and the music blaring (weird stuff I had never heard before, like Death Cab for Cutie, At the Drive In, and Bright Eyes), exchanged books, watched movies, hung out at the lake, went to the “secret spot,” and spent every waking moment together. We were “friends” throughout the summer (I didn’t even know our first date was a date!) and decided the night before school restarted (I would be a junior, he a senior) that we should make it “official.” That was also the night he told me he didn’t want to kiss anyone until he was married. (Wait, WHAT?).
We dated for a year without kissing, which felt excruciating at the time but also gave us time to deeply know each other. Then, it was time for him to move to college. I was devastated, but had somehow enticed him to go to my desired future school when his college football scholarship fell through. He was going to study English and writing (a poet, remember?), and I was sure he was going to meet a beautiful, brilliant college girl and forget all about our high school romance. We had one last breakfast at the Swiss diner I worked at (he’d always come to visit me and I’d serve him burgers in my Swiss dress). We drank coffee (which he taught me to love and has become my second great love affair), and I cried when he left. We called each other every day, and he came home that very first weekend. The minute he got home, I ran down into the basement “cave” where we’d always watch movies, we hugged, and before we knew it, we were kissing. I don’t remember how it started, and I don’t remember how it ended. I just remember feeling like sparks were flying and we had entered another dimension. He was my first kiss, and we never stopped kissing after that. (So, in retrospect, it was probably good that we actually talked to each other for a year :)).
Fast forward 12 1/2 years, and we’ve been married for 7 1/2 years. He came home to visit almost every weekend that first year. Then, I followed him to the same university. We got married 5 years to the date after we made it “official,” outside on a rainy day in August. We rode a green tandem bike and danced with our family and friends to that same weird indie music we blared with the windows down (including my grandparents, who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on the same day). We lived in our first house across from the college as broke college kids for a year before moving to New York City to pursue our dreams. After 4 years, we moved to South Korea to pursue new dreams. All of my best adventures have been with him. He was my last kiss this morning, heading to university to teach English as I’m reading and writing these beautiful memories. And smiling ear to ear.

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Courtney

Reply to Courtney

March 6, 2018 9:13 pm

*Vastly different

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Greta

Reply to Courtney

March 8, 2018 10:53 am

My eyes are watering! This is so beautiful and reminds me so much of our story with my husband, although he was not my first kiss. My first kiss was a bizarre experience during a party at an UNESCO World Heritage summer camp in Norway. I was 17.

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Shannon

March 6, 2018 4:28 pm

I was 14 and he was 17 and my brother’s good friend. I had been into him for a good 6 months so everything about it was perfect. He said the most perfect cheesy line after spending 30 minutes in the freezing cold just talking. We dated for almost 3 years after that. It was decades ago, but I still remember it very clearly.

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Kaylan

March 6, 2018 7:43 am

My first kiss was with my highschool boyfriend, Carl, who was on the swim team and had wildly curly hair. He was two years older and we had met in band – he played saxophone, me clarinet. It was 2003, and one night after watching movies in his parents’ basement, he drove me home in his mom’s aubergine colored Astrovan. The smooth sounds of Outkast’s ‘The Way You Move’ was on the radio. I had anticipated a kiss for a while. He pulled into my driveway (which is visible from the front window, a fact I was very nervous about just in case my parents happened to be watching). I remember leaning in for the standard hug, and when I started to pull back he quickly went in for the kiss. It was fast and I remember it being pretty natural. Afterwards, I went inside and promptly logged onto AOL Instant Messenger to tell my friend Megan “It happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” :)

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Sam

March 5, 2018 10:20 pm

The air was crisp and smelled like rain and he was as dreamy as the stars above us. I was 18, quirky, and was wearing a band tee from a Summer Fest concert. He was 21 and in college.

We met at my childhood summer camp and in three days he was holding my hand as we walked through the forest. It was my Birthday, how lucky is that!

I fell head-over-heels for this man. We didn’t want to part with our summer romance so, he asked me out on a date. A date where he drove two-and-a-half hours to meet me in my hometown.

So, here we are, under a big apple tree late at night. We lay out an old comforter of mine – light blue and patchy. We rest our backs on the trunk and he pulls me in tight to his chests. I look up to him smiling at the stars and whispers of constellations and myths. I being a bold/ take what you want kind of gal reached up to his chin and gently pull it down to mine. We kiss and keep kissing! The kiss was mine, fresh and new. And, thinking wow – how delicious was that movie type kiss. Sadly our relationship did not last and we stopped communicating. He was my first “love” and he was the first boy to break my heart. But I still treasure this moment and I have fond memories of that sweetheart summer.

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Ivy

March 5, 2018 8:46 pm

Late-bloomer might as well have been my name in high school. I grew up in a small community and knew in middle school all the girls were getting their first kisses, but I remained kiss-less. I couldn’t figure out what it was about me that boys didn’t find attractive. (Later, I realized I simply didn’t even know how to be around a boy. That took time.)

Well eventually 10th grade hit, my boobs were apparent, I learned the finesse of make-up, and I started receiving some male attention. There was a boy in the grade above me, a friend of mine, who I started spending time with. By spending time with, I of course mean we would ride around together in his car. After a couple weeks of endless cruising, he finally made the move.

It was wet, there was too much spit, and WAY too much tongue. I remember being excited, but also thinking, “I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to feel like I just took a shower.” We had a couple of makeout sessions until he grabbed my boob, which appalled me. I then decided I didn’t want to makeout with a boob bandit, and promptly ended things.

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Bets

March 5, 2018 12:01 pm

I was in 7th grade at a dance, with a dreamy, sweet and shy 8th grader. We kissed … and when I got home and brushed my teeth, I noticed a small cut – must have been from his braces, lol. I thought I felt a little pinch on my lip during the magic of my first kiss! It hurt to drink orange juice but it was worth it <3

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Ashna

March 5, 2018 11:35 am

Awkward, I remember going to movie with that guy, my first boyfriend and then he suddenly turned to me and tried to kiss me. It was so awkward and unexpected that I turned my face away from him. Rude but I don’t regret doing that.

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CG

March 4, 2018 10:57 pm

My first kiss slobby. I was already 17 or 18 and he was my first boyfriend. He was cute and all, but he does not know how to kiss and seemed like pent-up teenage angst.

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Nina

March 4, 2018 8:01 pm

I wasn’t expecting it so it took me by surprise. But it was fantastic! At 14 with a guy that looked like Di Caprio in the Titanic times (it was 1997 after all). And it was under a starry sky. We had some company but I didn’t really mind their presence or their comments. I just really really liked it and have been obsessed with kissing ever since.

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Michaela

March 3, 2018 8:21 pm

I’m sitting here grinning ear to ear reading all these comments and remembering all the wonderful, awful, hopeful, anxious anticipation of being a teenager.

I “dated” (as in, I was 13-14 and we said we were boyfriend/girlfriend and occasionally held hands) three guys before having my first kiss at 15. We were in my parents’ basement holding hands and watching a movie and it was almost time for him to go home when he (finally!) leaned over and kissed me, which led to a few minutes of sloppily making out. Honestly, I don’t remember the moment itself very well, but I do have a very clear memory of sitting in the back of my family’s van while my mom drove him home and feeling giddy, sort of grown up, and wondering if my mom could tell what I had been up to!

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Meg

March 3, 2018 11:32 am

This story begins in eighth grade, where my very shy boyfriend and my very shy self both wanted to kiss, but just couldn’t bring ourselves. It became a “thing” that our friends knew about and tried to encourage, which just made it so much worse. I remember once they left us alone in the church vestibule (Catholic school!) and stood outside waiting for us to get on with it . . . We just couldn’t.

In ninth grade, we were still together and unkissed. One evening we were at the local college basketball stadium where our high school team was playing. Very loud, very crowded, completely unromantic. I was standing near the entrance getting ready to leave after the game, and he stepped in front of me, and kissed me, in an instant, and he was gone. A tingle of electricity shot all the way through me. It was exactly what I had hoped it would be without having any idea it could be like that.

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Sarah

March 3, 2018 8:54 am

My first kiss was my first love. We had been an item for a couple months, and on the eve of my 18th birthday, we were at the mall (as you do when you don’t yet have your driver’s license). We had walked the course of the mall a couple times without going in any stores (he asked me why I didn’t want to go in – I told him I just figured men don’t like shopping) when he pulled me aside to a couch in front of Neiman Marcus. He pulled out a piece of paper and read aloud a sonnet…that I assumed was a famous literary piece but was actually one HE had written – for me! It was so incredibly sweet. Then he pulled out a second piece of paper with the lyrics to a Relient K song (I’m still waiting for/you to be the one I’m waiting for), read them aloud to me, and asked if he could kiss me. It was…eager and a bit forceful :) – and when we finished he said, “Whoa, that was better than I was expecting.” Pretty sure we glowed the rest of the night, which ended at his family’s house where his mom had baked me a pineapple upside down birthday cake – but the secret of that first kiss and the sweetness of our young love was the best dessert.

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Sarah

March 3, 2018 1:42 am

Everyone keeps saying they were a late bloomer, but then say a perfectly reasonable age for a first kiss. So I think we should redefine what late bloomer means! If my daughter waits til 16, i’ll be over the moon! I’ll believe, like so many of the comments here, she knew what she was doing and not just unable to say no to someone. Props to all the late bloomers!!

And for the record, i was right on time, also at 16. Fourth of July firework celebration at the park in Boise, Idaho. I had the biggest crush on my best friends slightly older cousin. After a night of flirting and laying under the stars, he leaned over and kissed me. Fireworks above me and in my heart. It kicked off the best summer romance and I still look back so fondly on that time.

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Joy

March 2, 2018 5:23 pm

I was 19 (so must been carrying more than a late card by then!). I remember being so nervous. Oh god. The nerves of first time dating were intense for me. So much inexperience, so many unknowns…! The kiss happened in a Dairy Queen parking lot, listening to (I loath to admit this) Kryptonite by Three Doors Down and it felt like the wettest, sloppiest thing ever. HUGE disappointment and I seriously considering never kissing again. The guy was a dud so maybe this shouldn’t hav come as a surprise ;)

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L

Reply to Joy

March 5, 2018 11:51 am

Three doors down… haha love it!

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Alena

March 2, 2018 5:10 pm

I didn’t kiss anyone until I was TWENTY THREE. I had a constant reel in my mind of everything that could go wrong. So when the time (finally) came, he leaned in and I froze and ruined it. “I’ve never kissed anybody before!” and that ended the first half of my first kiss experience. Luckily, that awkward experience confirmed that, at the very least, we both wanted it. So a few days later I somehow got the ovaries of Beyonce, straddled him in the hot tub (IN THE HOT TUB!), grabbed his face, and kissed him with everything I had. That was the second-half of my first kiss, and it’s turns out I’m pretty damn excellent at it.

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Nancy

Reply to Alena

March 3, 2018 5:53 pm

My favorite part of this entire comment, “ovaries of Beyonce” lol. But good job! I’m sure he was pleasantly surprised.

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Gabriela

March 2, 2018 4:32 pm

oh my goodness, my first kiss was at 14, while camping with my family, with a 16 year-old boy who was also camping with his family. the poor guy used so much tongue, and i vividly remember thinking “ARE. YOU. KIDDING ME??? THIS is what movies and books and songs talk about??? I HAVE BEEN LIED TO MY WHOLE LIFE.” hahahaha. thankfully i have found that kissing gets a lot better as people get older and at 29 i quite enjoy it now ;)

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Sharon

March 2, 2018 4:06 pm

Your experience sounds wonderful! Mine was much more intense, though definitely not enjoyable. I think my high school crush watched too many day time soaps. I felt as though I was being invaded by his tongue… I still involuntarily shiver at the memory… Ha!

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Liljmp

March 2, 2018 2:51 pm

I join the chorus of delighted readers that this is the best experience, reading everyone’s responses. I can’t stop grinning, thinking of all these tender thoughts meeting reality! For me, in April of 1988, I turned 16 years old. I had always been ‘boy crazy’ and the one to have the crush with no result. But there came along a stunning kid who I fell hard for, but never dreamed he would speak to me. But he did! And he was a skateboarder, so I felt thrilled that he was so edgy and cool! ha So, I believe it was at the end of summer/beginning of Fall when – despite my braces and awkwardness and all – we had been walking and talking for a while and he faced me, rested his hands on my hips, tilted his head to the side, self-consciously licked his lip and pulled me in. (Remember “Some Kind of Wonderful”? That was our era, what can I say.) His kisses were so sweet, soft and tender – I have always been in awe that my first kiss was so lovely. Thanks to everyone for sharing – y’all are why I keep coming back! PS – we’re still close friends to this day.

Also, the Worst kiss I ever received was later in college from an over-eager, tongue-y disaster that I had no idea how to pull away politely? or close my mouth more? or laugh at the absurdity? No protocol…I was aghast. Once and only.

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Aimee

March 2, 2018 2:50 pm

Lol. You described my first kiss anticipation panic exactly! It didn’t help that I was a late bloomer either- I was 16 so I was sure I was going to mess it up! Mine was with a guy I had just met the week before and we all went to a country western dance club (Dallas, Texas!) with his friends and my friends. He kissed me before I got in my friend’s car to leave so it was a little awkward with the others waiting but he was sweet. Never saw him again but that’s probably for the best because as far as I’ve ever known he was perfect and had no flaws!

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makit

March 2, 2018 1:24 pm

Good evening, I read to you every day and I write you of Paris – France. My first kiss was offered to me by a guy name Claude, I had 13 – 14 years, we danced a slow dance in one afternoon party (une “Boom”) on the song “Let it Be” of The Beatles … It was very pleasant and 56 years later I still remember it even if I forgot the face of my romantic dancer :-). I lost sight of him a few weeks later.

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Allison

March 2, 2018 12:05 pm

When I was a sophomore in high school, I had a crush on this sweet, skinny, shy guy with a big mop of curly hair. He asked me to our homecoming dance on instant messenger. The date was so typically awkward high school, he actually got pulled over for speeding on the way to dinner because he was trying to show off. I wore a ridiculous two piece Jessica McClintock dress. He asked me to be his girlfriend a few weeks later. After dating for three months, and lots of harassing from his guy friends, he got the courage to kiss me before getting into his truck on the dirt road I grew up on. I think we made out constantly for the next year, it drove my friends nuts. Fast forward about 15 years later, we’re married.

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Missy

March 2, 2018 11:58 am

It was the last day of 7th grade and my friends made me do it. Not really, but if it weren’t for them I wouldn’t have done it! It was with a boy I really liked and was dating (is it even dating in middle school?). It was quick and messy. I didn’t kiss anyone else until sophomore year of high school lol.

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Em

March 2, 2018 11:30 am

Another late bloomer story: I was 21, hanging out at a co-worker’s house with his friends. At the end of the night, I got up to leave and grab my purse from the other room. I turned around all of a sudden his tongue was in my mouth. I wasn’t even attracted to him but went along with it since I was tired of not having kissed anyone. Two years later, my second kiss was a similar situation and, again, I just went with it.

Fast forward to today: I’m 38 and haven’t kissed anyone since. A few weeks ago a kiss seemed imminent and I was so panicked because I can’t even remember what it was like. I think I spent about three hours one day reading all the kissing articles I could find online (including searching this blog!) and interviewing a few trusted girlfriends. All for nothing….whoops!

I’ve been (secretly) a little embarrassed about this situation but all the comments with women saying they wish they could have a first kiss again made me feel better. It’s been so long it will pretty much be a first again!

Thanks!

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Emily

March 2, 2018 11:08 am

In 7th grade, I went to the semi-formal dance with my boyfriend. We had only held hands at the movies, but I heard from a friend that he wanted to kiss me. Naturally, I spent the majority of the night in the girls’ locker room discussing this with my friends (was I ready? did he want to french? what did it all mean?) and during the last dance I gave him my cheek to kiss. I was proud that I knew I wasn’t ready. (Spoiler alert: he was never that into me, and he’s now a fabulous makeup artist.)
In 8th grade, I went to that same dance with a new boyfriend, a boy who had wooed me with locker notes and let me ride his scooter. Someone teased me that we hadn’t kissed yet, so I rolled my eyes, marched across the cafeteria to where he was sitting with a few of our friends, leaned across the table and planted a kiss on his lips – then sat down and said “hey what’s up?” as nonchalantly as I could, while my friends gaped and cheered.
I can remember both those nights so vividly: the first, I felt such a heady mix of giddiness and terror; the second, I just felt like a badass. I love that both times I trusted myself to know what I wanted. And I love how the two stories show how quickly we change at that age! What a difference a year makes.

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Meg

Reply to Emily

March 3, 2018 11:40 am

I love these stories, Emily!

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Cara

March 2, 2018 10:42 am

My first kiss was with a friend who suddenly turned into a very brief summer romance after we ended up next to each other on a trampoline one night. It started raining, but we wanted to stay outside so he went and got a tarp that we draped over ourselves. We had three other friends on the trampoline with us, and we were all talking, but him and I slowly started semi-cuddling. I remember thinking how cozy he felt, and he later told me that he realized how pretty I was that night. After a couple weeks of an increasingly flirty friendship, we ended up on a lovesack watching a movie in the park. We stayed on the lovesack after the movie and well after everyone had gone. At 2 in the morning, after talking for hours, he asked if he could kiss me, and I said yes. The kiss felt like hot liquid and also like something had left me that could never come back, like the rush of air from a popped balloon. Two days later, he told me he “didn’t like me like that,” and we were done. He had really thin lips, but I didn’t think too much of it until I kissed my husband’s lips a few months later. His lips feel like pillows. I remember the first time I kissed him, I felt like I was getting lost in him and like he could touch so much more of my lips at the same time. I felt stupid for ever missing kissing the first guy. This was infinitely better on every level. After I kissed my husband, we went back to watching the movie. He paused it ten minutes later, looked over at me in the semi-darkness and asked “Wanna be my girlfriend?” I said yes.

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Hannah R

Reply to Cara

March 2, 2018 5:43 pm

You should write a romance novel – I would totally read it! xx

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cris

March 2, 2018 9:20 am

I was 16 (almost 17). We had met the previous summer through the internet (mIRC!) and actually met face-to-face around 20min after we started chatting online. We became friends and he knew something was happening before I did. Finally, on the sunday before carnival, we found ourselves on a garden bench, with none around. My head was on his shoulder (totally avoiding eye contact! ha!) and he told me to look up. I did. We kissed. It was sweet and my heart was racing and a bit of an outer-body experience. Actually my heart still races when thinking of that moment, mainly because he will be home after work by the end of the day and I get to kiss him all over again. After almost 18 years (7 living together and 2 cats) sometimes I still feel like that super nervous girl and it’s great :)

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Jennifer C.

March 2, 2018 9:06 am

Just thinking back to it gives me butterflies! I was so nervous! I was 15 years old living in Germany (military brat). Our volleyball team was playing an away game in Berlin. We had to spend all day after our game waiting on the “night train” so we were hanging out with the football players from Munich. Their quarterback was flirting with me all day and my friends kept pushing me to kiss him but I was too scared. As his train was about to leave, I just went for it (since I figured I would never see him again)! It was wonderful! I love that memory…thanks!

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Rebekah

March 2, 2018 8:24 am

First kiss was absolute magic. I still get butterflies when I think about it. It was the morning of our wedding :) We were committed to keeping sex for marriage, and while of course a kiss is a long way from full-out rollin’ in the hay, it kinda seemed like an “on-ramp” that would be hard to exit once we started! And hooooooo boy were we right.

We’d decided to have our first kiss (and most of our wedding pics) before the actual wedding ceremony because we didn’t fancy practicing in front of all our friends and family! So I got dolled up in my wedding dress…walked in to the room to see my adorably nervous guy…he pulled me in and kissed me, and holy smokes, if we’d had the chance I think we would have just done the deed right there. I remember thinking “oh wow, I get to do this for the rest of my life with you??” He’s the only one I’ve ever kissed but I can’t imagine anyone being better.

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Silvina

March 2, 2018 7:36 am

Another late bloomer here! I was 23 and the kiss was great, but right afterwards I told the guy “I’m so embarrassed, I don’t know how to kiss!”, and he was just like “nonsense!” and kissed me again.

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Kate

March 2, 2018 7:20 am

I was 16, at a party. She was a friend of mine and to be fair we just kind of ended up kissing? I don’t even really know what happened there. It’s still a confusing night to look back on (especially because I was completely sober)

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Jessica

March 2, 2018 3:30 am

I was 17 and he was my very best friend. He’d spent the previous two years chasing me, but it took him really falling for someone else to make me realize I was in love with him. I told him how I felt and we both broke off our current flings immediately so we could be together. That weekend, our families went on an overnight at a condo resort. Together. Yep, they were (conveniently) best friends too. We all swam and, after everyone left the pool, we lingered. He leaned in and I buried my head in his shoulder, laughing (I was so nervous!). I pulled away and he was just smiling, shaking his head. “You’re a dork!” We laughed and then he went in again. This time we connected and it was sexy and magical. Later that night we stole away to the lobby and made out…for a long while. It was so fun and freeing! Around midnight his mom came down and told us it was time for bed. Ha! And we thought we were so sneaky.

That kiss initiated a rocky and painful few years of dating for us. We ended up marrying other people who fit us perfectly, but we’ve remained good friends. To this day, I so grateful it was him.

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Lluvia

Reply to Jessica

March 3, 2018 2:42 am

Can’t explain why but I wanna read more about your story! This is like the start of a great novel!

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Pip

March 2, 2018 1:03 am

It was at my friend Lisa’s party – her birthday was in December and Frankie goes to Hollywood were number 1 with the Power of Love, which played on a loop in her tape deck We lived in a small town in rural England and my dad was a teacher at my high school – not ideal. My friend Helen had already had a couple of boyfriends and was very “it’s easy, you’ll know what to do” about the whole kissing thing. Like you Joanna – that was not good enough intel for me! Our friend, Richard, was very fun, had good floppy hair (so important in the 80s) , attractive but not in a way that gave me goosebumps and with the benefit of hindsight was also gay. He agreed to help a pal out (me) by snogging me and afterwards Helen said “it looked right”. That was good enough for me I had enough sense of what I needed to do the next time with someone who did give me goosebumps – and I did! I look back on that evening with great fondness – the things teens do!

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Erin

March 2, 2018 12:49 am

My first kiss story is not romantic AT ALL: Near the beginning of my first year of college, I participated in a scavenger hunt as part of a (fairly harmless) initiation to the swim team. One of the items on the scavenger hunt was “Go find the president of the ski club. Get a hickey from him.” So I found him — which wasn’t hard, it was “clubs week” and he was dutifully sitting at his booth in the student union building — and announced that I needed a hickey. “But I’ve never given anyone a hickey before!” he shrieked. “Don’t worry, I’ve never had one before,” I said. “It’s fine if you just want to kiss my arm.” He sucked on my arm for a minute, but it turns out you can’t give arm hickeys all that easily … so someone got a marker and he drew a hickey on my arm instead. It counted for the scavenger hunt; my swimming teammates thought it was hilarious. And much later — the next year — I had a proper first kiss from a boy I liked. :)

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Vanessa

March 2, 2018 12:14 am

My first kiss?! Ahhhhhhhh, makes me smile to think of my 14 year old self…. on an exchange trip in Paris…. in the doorway of an old building with Bruno. He was 16, Portuguese/French, dark hair and so confident. It was raining, we were on an errand to pick up speakers to bring back to the school dance…. and then it happened. In the moment, I was all up in my head like “wo, wtf is going on?!?!?”. I’m the end….Totally weird. Totally great.

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Kathleen

March 1, 2018 11:46 pm

I had my first kiss when I was 15 (I felt very old…) with a boy named Ryan in my church youth group. We’d known each other for a few years, but we’d started holding hands under the table at youth group dinners, which seemed like a Big Deal. He’d had a bunch of “girlfriends” and was a WHOLE year and a half older than me, so I was totally flattered that he would want to talk to me. He and his mom (who volunteered at the youth group) often gave me a ride home, so one night we were the last to leave and we told his mom we would exit the building through a different door. I remember every moment so well – we walked up a flight of stairs, he asked me if anyone had ever kissed me before, and then told me he couldn’t believe no one had and that it was about to change. He went in for the kiss and SPARKS FLEW – I’m not kidding. I remember the light from the street lamp just outside the door made these shadows in the dark room we were in, and it felt so romantic to me – I couldn’t believe it was happening! We got in the car with his mom, and I remember trying to make sure I didn’t look flustered, but in retrospect, I’m SURE she knew what was up (we’d been holding hands under piles of coats in the back seat for a while).

For a couple years, when I went to boarding school out of state, I would come home for vacation and we’d make out in his pickup truck. We’ve led really different lives – he’s 23 and married with a kid, whereas I’m just finishing college and about to start a PhD program in NYC. Even now, my family still goes to this church, so it’s pretty much guaranteed that I’ll see him at Christmas every year for a long time to come…and, once in a while, we’ll be talking and walk over that exact spot where we first kissed.

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Elle English

March 1, 2018 10:48 pm

Late in my sophomore year, a new boy joined my English class. I crushed madly on his confidence and humor, not to mention his tall, dark and handsome looks. We became friends. As the quintessential ‘good girl’ and ‘A student’, I had zero experience in the kissing or flirting department. But one night in Fall of 12th grade, after watching a movie, Chris kissed me. He told his best friend the next day, “If I kiss her again, I will marry her.” So there was no more kissing. At least, not until my senior year of college when we reconnected. And the rest is history. Six years of dating, 17 years of marriage, and an incredibly happy life with a man that I crush on to this day. Incredible, really.

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Dana

Reply to Elle English

March 2, 2018 1:55 am

This is the best story.

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Sarah F.

Reply to Elle English

March 4, 2018 1:06 pm

I love this story! There is something about a man who knows what he wants and keeps his word… All the best to you both as you continue your romance!

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Carina

March 1, 2018 10:34 pm

Fascinating. Even though I’ve had a couple of boyfriends, the only first kiss I remember is the one my husband and I shared when we first started dating. I’ll never forget it, and I guess it eclipsed all others. That was 21 years ago now, and we are still happily married. ❤️

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Gemma Grover

March 1, 2018 10:11 pm

I was 12, sitting next to the hottest guy in school (for jr high standards). I remember I was chewing a pink starburst. It was a surreal experience but all of a sudden there was a tongue in my mouth and a boy in my face. It was not like the movies, it was as if my mouth was toilet bowl and his tongue was being flushed down my throat. After the experience, I stood up from the couch, spit the starburst in the trash, and to this day, pink starbursts still make me gag.

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Laura

Reply to Gemma Grover

March 2, 2018 1:18 pm

omg, I’m sorry you had this bad experience, but your description made me lol!

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Rachel

March 1, 2018 10:09 pm

My first kiss was not romantic or idillic. I was 13, at my first party with alcohol and rather drunk of shamefully few beverages. I was sitting on a desk when a handsome football player kissed me and tried to move things along far more quickly than I was ready for. Meanwhile my friend sat next to me telling me I was a slut for making out with a boy I didn’t know. Needless to say I have leant a lot about consent, being empowered about my own sexuality and kissing since then!

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Solveig

March 1, 2018 10:03 pm

I was 17 and in my first year of university (after spending all of high-school surrounded by all-girls). We had gone on a sort-of-double-date with a friend and her boring boyfriend to a midnight halloween wonderland – complete with rollercoasters and haunted houses. Throughout the whole night he held my hand because he was totally terrified of the clowns that would follow you around the park. My friend kept joking that he would HAVE to kiss me and it was infuriating. We got back to our university dorm around 5am, after I fell asleep on his shoulder on the long bus ride back. He insisted on walking me back to my room. The kiss was… fine. In the very moment I was thinking, “wow, this is not at all exciting,” he pulls away and says, “I could keep kissing you forever!”

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JR

March 1, 2018 8:22 pm

My fourth grade “boyfriend” and I were in two separate classrooms at our elementary school, but they were connected by a shared internal door. During quiet reading time, we’d each sit on one side of the door and pass notes underneath. We thought we were SO sneaky.

One day, he wrote on a Post-It note, “I think we should kiss.” I wrote back: “No, we’re too young.” (I was a very practical 10 year old.)

Fast forward to our college years, home for summer break at one of those big hometown parties. That same boy found the wrinkled Post-It in his childhood room, and we had a real good laugh about it.

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Jemma

March 1, 2018 7:48 pm

I was 12. The guy was having an end of the year pool party. It was dark and by then everyone had been drawn inside in search of warmth. Clearly we had seen too many rom-coms because I said that the stars looked beautiful. He responded with “like your eyes” and kissed me. At that age, I swooned. Today, I’d probably laugh.

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Bianca

March 1, 2018 6:00 pm

I hadn’t thought about my first kiss in so long, but it is such a great memory that I am so happy to have found this post!

I was 15 and the cute boy that I sat next to in English class was in my friend group. We were all hanging out at a friends house and we broke off from the group. We walked through a little apple orchard and down to the lake. The entire time it was happening I had a million things going on in my head and I felt like the speed of the thoughts was making my face so red and hot. “This is so perfect!” “I can’t believe I am going to kiss this guy.” “This is the most romantic place ever!!!” We were standing on the dock and finally started kissing. It was so great, but then we stopped because we heard a strange noise. Standing super still we realized that there was a possum a peeing a few feet away. We let him finish and then walk away. It was strange, but also very memorable and very sweet.

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Nicole A.

March 1, 2018 5:57 pm

I was twelve when I had my first puppy-love crush. We met through a mutual friend at church. He asked me out with a homemade turquoise earring and necklace set on my thirteenth birthday next to a vending machine. Soon after, he confided in the mutual friend that he wanted to have his first kiss with me at a pool party she was going to throw. Like a true bestie, she spilled the beans to me, but I told her I wasn’t ready. So when the day of the pool party arrived, and he tried to make his move, I stopped him and said “if you are willing to wait, if in a year we are still together, we can have our first kiss.” Like a true gentleman, he understood. Lo and behold, like the good kid he was, he did indeed wait that full year. On the dot. We kissed outside the children’s church on a cold night after Wednesday small groups. It was short and sweet, innocent, and perfect. We continued to date until late high school. He wanted marriage, but yet again, I didn’t feel that I was ready. We decided on separate colleges, and I let him go. He’s married now with the girl he met right after me, and they live in Las Vegas where he works as a fire safety engineer. We’re Snapchat friends, and we have the occasional (obviously civil and appropriate) chat once and awhile through the app. I hope he’s just as pleased that I was his first kiss as I was pleased that he was mine, although I’ve never asked, and I guess I shall never know!

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Leah

March 1, 2018 5:56 pm

My first kiss was actually quite a lovely experience. I was sitting at a campfire with a few close friends one summer evening, and there was another girl there that I had just met that night. We immediately clicked. We were, well, a little tipsy, and when my friends went inside to go make some cookies, the two of us tentatively kissed. It was lovely.

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Elisa

March 1, 2018 5:34 pm

I love reading these comments. I’ve always felt a little self-conscious and embarrassed for being a late-bloomer, but now I know I’m not alone! My first kiss was at age 21, with my (now) husband – watching the oh-so-romantic movie Good Will Hunting, thanks Matt Damon.

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Emma

March 1, 2018 5:33 pm

My first kiss was the summer before high school, laying down in the grass at a park. The kiss was great, but I ended up getting a terrible poison ivy rash all over my face that required steroids to treat it. My (extremely conservative) parents said it was God punishing me for going down a path of sin! Needless to say, I’ve had some things to work through in therapy…

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Tricia

Reply to Emma

March 1, 2018 5:52 pm

This made me laugh because I am all too familiar with the conservative parents ?

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Amy

Reply to Emma

March 1, 2018 10:59 pm

Oh, I can so relate! My first kiss was at 22. I had a few opportunities to kiss in my teens, but my ultra-conservative mom made it seem like kissing was a short step away from all-out “fornication.” Even holding hands with a boy was grounds for a shameful look and long lecture. I ended up marrying my first kiss. While we are very happy together, I’m definitely going to encourage my daughters to kiss a few frogs before they find their prince. I regret not having more fun as a teenager.

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Elise

March 1, 2018 5:29 pm

After reading more of the comments (which are so fun) most of us had terrible first kisses, but many of us have had wonderful first kisses with our respective partners. So, maybe the bad first, first kiss experience just paves the way for the magical first kiss experience?

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Tracy

March 1, 2018 5:23 pm

My HS bf. It was sweet and awkward, kind of a ‘fail’ because we tried to do like one of those “movie scene” (hot-heavy) kiss. It was bad and slobbery, but we laughed a lot and had a lot of fun “practicing” afterward. :)

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Elise

March 1, 2018 5:17 pm

Late bloomer over here, too. My first kiss was at 19 years old. Even then, I had wanted to wait until my wedding for my first kiss. Thinking back, it wasn’t even because of some moral stance. I just wanted it to be really special and really personal to whoever I was with, and apparently I wasn’t completely sure about the guy I WAS with. He kind of forced one out of me, though, and it was NOT magical, to say the least.

BUT, fast forward to easy summer hang outs with a cute and funny coworker, and after talking and laughing for hours on a picnic quilt in the park he went for it. Not contrived, not forced, and truly, wonderfully magical. And now he’s my husband.

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Emily

March 1, 2018 5:14 pm

My first kiss was in 6th grade and it was on a dare…that I orchestrated. ? Despite not being a real kiss and in front of my friends, it was sort of lovely and awkwardly sweet. My first real kiss was when I was 18, after a folk dance, under the stars. I didn’t stay with him, and I’d never want to be with him again, but I still feel tingly thinking about it. It’s one thing I would love to have again, a first kiss.

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em

March 1, 2018 5:11 pm

I love reading all these! I was 19, a sophomore in college, and utterly in love with a guy who had broken up with his longtime girlfriend only a month earlier, and Ricky Nelson was playing in the background. It was winter break, and we were parked in the driveway at my parents’ house. “I didn’t get everything I wanted for Christmas,” he said, smiling, and I was so naive that before I figured out what he meant, he leaned over and kissed me. I remember it being heart-throbbingly wonderful and . . . WEIRD. I told my sis after, who asked what it was like, “It’s like you suck on each other’s lips a little!” He walked me to the door and that’s the only time I’ve ever felt butterflies, so intense and immediate. There were some awful humdingers in the interim (the horrible scraped-face-from-beard-kiss among them!), but my last first kiss, 13 years after the first one and from my now husb. is the only one that has held up to that memory–we entered gently into our relationship and he warned me by text in advance he’d like to kiss me (so I could bail if I wasn’t interested!), so there was all the anticipation going into it. When he kissed me, the room slowly spun around. “This is it,” I thought, “this is the feeling of letting go of control.” And I’m so glad I did.

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HH

Reply to em

March 7, 2018 2:59 pm

Er, I’m the sister and I remember thinking, “Gross!”

I’m also a “real” late bloomer. First kiss was at 22, with my first boyfriend, a friend-turned boyfriend. The kiss was on my parents’ front porch and completely unremarkable. Imagine kissing your brother. Later on, his longer kisses resembled kissing a metronome. “Peck. Peck. Peck. Peck.” For obvious reasons, the relationship was short-lived, but the friendship lasting. :)

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Shannon

March 1, 2018 4:58 pm

I was 21 years old; it was in Belfast, and with an Englishman I had met at a pub named Aaron. He walked me and my friends back to my hostel, I suggested I walk him back down the street and it happened :) Oh, and it was raining. Complete rom-com material.

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Karen

March 1, 2018 4:56 pm

7th grade dance! I’m trying really hard to remember the song right now, but I can’t! Would have to break out the old middle school diary to figure it out (cringe). It was bad though, for sure.

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Jodi

March 1, 2018 4:52 pm

My first kiss was in the 8th grade at one of my classmates’ notorious “end of the school year pool party”. He was my boyfriend at the time and we snuck off into the woods behind his house with towels wrapped around ourselves, over our wet bathing suits from swimming, barefoot, climbing over branches until we were far enough in that no one could see us. We didn’t speak about what was going to happen, but it was pretty damn obvious to each other we were going to have our first kiss, and the anticipation was killing me. It was super awkward looking back, but so sweet and innocent. Clearly neither of us had any clue what we were doing because we walked out of those woods with slobber all over our faces haha. I remember looking at each other after, thinking “what just happened! that was awesome!!!”

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Jill

March 1, 2018 4:52 pm

“I don’t want it to be special, I want it to be over.”
–terribly business-like, 24-year-old me to a hot-and-cold friend of years.
(also used that night: “I mean, if it’s not you [guy’s name], who’s it gonna be.” Somebody call Nancy Meyers already.)

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Laura

Reply to Jill

March 2, 2018 11:02 am

This made me laugh so hard, and is VERY FAMILIAR!

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Sarah Butterfield

March 1, 2018 4:36 pm

My first kiss was at the altar, right after we said “I do”!!! Yep, I was twenty years old and a complete victim of evangelical purity culture, haha. My husband and I have been married for fifteen years and have grown so much together, that I look back at our twenty-year-old selves with absolute wonder.

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Joanna Goddard

Author

Reply to Sarah Butterfield

March 1, 2018 4:38 pm

what a fascinating comment, sarah! you sound awesome.

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Becca Lynn

Reply to Sarah Butterfield

March 1, 2018 5:17 pm

As a fellow victim of evangelical purity culture, I hear you! We waited till we got engaged haha (I was 21!). Somehow my husband and I have stayed married despite completely walking away from our evangelical roots and in some sense, the whole reason we got married in the first place. I’m a little envious of everyone’s sweet teenage romance stories!

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Ciana

Reply to Sarah Butterfield

March 1, 2018 10:03 pm

Ha ha I was raised on ‘I kissed dating goodbye’! I rebelled a bit, then a lot, and had to pass through a lot of guilt, anger, etc before finally feeling normal! Needless to say my own daughters will be allowed to date and have normal teen kisses and more :)

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Sarah F.

Reply to Sarah Butterfield

March 4, 2018 1:12 pm

Same! Although it was a beautiful moment (accompanied by a sweet awkwardness!), my husband and I often wished that we had done otherwise. I agree with you in that I love how we have grown together since then. Looking forward to approaching things differently with my own children!

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Annie

March 1, 2018 4:17 pm

My first kiss was when I was a freshman in high school on the way back from seeing a haunted house with friends. In hindsight, it wasn’t great, but at the time, IT WAS PERFECT! His name was Jake, and he was a handsome, older drummer with a classic car. I mean…hello!

If I’m being honest though, my actual first kiss was in 8th grade when a gross guy in class came up, grabbed my head and planted one on my lips in class. I was SO upset (and ashamed for some reason? I never told my parents). I did tell the teacher and the boy got punished (paddles, as we got hit in the 90’s, ha). I had completely blocked it out until our future president bragged about grabbing pussy, so there’s that.

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A

March 1, 2018 4:11 pm

My almost-first kiss happened in a Spanish nightclub at age 16. I was in Spain for a few weeks with a friend, and she and I went out with some family friends of our hosts. I was swaying along to some pop version of “Besame Mucho” when one of the guys whispered in my ear (in Spanish): “Do you understand the song? Do you want to try?” I laughed but told him no thanks. I don’t regret not kissing him… my real first kiss was 3 years later, with my now-husband of 3 years, in the first snowfall of the season. Much more my style.

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Kristine

March 1, 2018 4:05 pm

Mine was at 16 or 17 with a boy who really had a crush on me (I don’t remember how I felt about him…)
Anyway, it was on my back porch, sitting on the steps, he leaned in to kiss me. I think I was taken unaware and it felt like our two mouths were wide open and vacuuming each other! I still laugh about it! I thought “that’s kissing? No thanks” and I think I broke up with him a couple days after!! Poor fella.

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Agnes

March 1, 2018 3:52 pm

I was newly 20, and it was with my first boyfriend, about a month into the relationship, I think. We were standing on the deck of a cruise ship and he went for it, tongue and all. I just stood there with my eyes open, looking around like, ‘what the…’ I wish I could say it was romantic, but it was just a bit of a surprise and I don’t think I realized kissing could happen with tongues. Also, he was high and I didn’t realize that at the time either, I just thought he was a funny and giggly guy. Probably my best kisses have been with my current boyfriend.. he’s in his mid-40’s and gets ridiculously excited about French-kissing, it’s so sweet :)

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