first

By: Megan Reichart

16

Teen Girl

kiss
There are first kisses, and then there are real first kisses,
Marilyn Edmonds said. The ones that give you that feeling
where you get weak in the knees and your whole body feels like
jelly and you cant see or hear anything else thats going on.
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Though Edmonds first kiss was actually in sixth grade on

the school bus and tasted like chicken, she doesnt consider it
her first real kiss.
That moment occurred the night she kissed her crush,
Patrick, in a darkened living room on her neighbors leather
couch while the kids she babysat were asleep upstairs.
It was one of those kisses where youre not supposed to be
doing it and it made it that much more thrilling, said Edmonds, an occupational therapy graduate student. We had
been flirting all night and he asked if he could kiss me. The rest
is history.
Whether short and sweet or hot and heavy, almost everyone
remembers their first kiss. It could be a highly personal moment a loss of childlike innocence or a memory kept tucked
deep inside to treasure.
For some, a first kiss may have been a comical or embarrassing experience.
Sam Brooks, a senior international relations major, remembers her first kiss in sixth grade to her boyfriend, Drew, as
awkward but sweet.
It was on New Years Eve at my best friends house and it
was just the three of us, she said. We were slow dancing in
front of the TV and as the ball dropped, we kissed.
Two years later, Brooks experienced her first real kiss
during a Halloween party and a game of seven minutes in

18 Teen Girl

heaven, where couples go into a closet and kiss.

It was dark in the closet and really awkward, she said. Im
pretty sure we missed the first time, too.
Kisses can make or break relationships, said Loren Maxwell, a
junior communication studies and justice studies double major.
Like many others, Maxwells first kiss came in middle school,
and as many experiences go at that age, she said it was awkward
and uncomfortable.
You can be extremely attracted to a person, but if they arent
a good kisser and theres no chemistry, its not going to work,
she said.
But why are first kisses so memorable?
A first kiss is an example of a very salient historical event
in our lives, according to Michael Hall, a psychology professor
at JMU. Those are flashbulb moments. The emotional component is why you remember it so well.

Remembering such specific details during these

flashbulb moments can be attributed to our cognitive memory, said Hall.

These memories can be triggered by our senses, like

certain sounds or smells.

Hall admitted that before his first kiss with his wife,

they had both been eating garlic. To this day, when he smells
garlic, it reminds him of that moment.

Actress Diane Kruger told Allure magazine that she even

remembers the music that was playing during her first kiss.

I remember the music I kissed to, Kruger said to

impact of a first kiss may be more important than anyone may

think.
In 2007, researchers from three universities surveyed a total of

the magazine. Hello by Lionel Richie, Sade, Depeche Mode. I

1,041 college students aged 18 to 25 and found that a first kiss can

still love that stuff.

have profound consequences for romantic relationships and can

Onscreen, actor Leonardo DiCaprio may enjoy kiss-

ing some of Hollywoods hottest starlets, but he doesnt look

back fondly on his first lip lock experience.
It was the most disgusting thing in my whole life, he
has said publicly. The girl injected about a pound of saliva
into my mouth, and when I walked away I had to spit it all

even be a major factor in ending one.

While a kiss may just be a kiss for a man, for a woman its an
all-important means of gauging a prospective partners compatibility, Smith said in the article titled Fate of a couple is sealed
with first kiss.
Women use the first kiss to assess a rich and complex exchange

out.
It turns out that David

of romantic and chemical clues that pass between

Archuleta, the 19-year-old

partners as their lips

American Idol star, is actu-

touch, according to Smith.

ally as innocent as he seemed

Sean Burke, a senior

during the seventh season

biology major, agrees that

of the hit show. The singer

women tend to reminisce

recently told Seventeen mag-

about their first kisses

azine that he has never had a

more than men do.

first kiss.

I think everyone re-

Archuleta isnt alone.Kelly

members their first kiss,

Ostergren, a sophomore

Burke said, and it was

English major, hasnt experi-

probably a big deal at thet

enced her first kiss yet, either.

ime, but when girls grow

Ive been in two relation-

up, they idolize their first

ships, but I put my standards

kiss and fantasize about

really high to the extent that

it. They do the same thing

I havent kissed anybody yet,

with weddings. Guys dont

she said. Ive waited this

do that.

long, so I figure Id rather

wait to kiss the person I want

But sometimes fate really is sealed with a first kiss. For Maxwell,

to spend the rest of my life with.

all it took was a kiss on starry night in South Africa for her to fall

I get so emotionally attached, so to add the physical compo-

in love with Kevin, the man who would later become her husband.

nent, it makes it so much harder when the relationship potentially ends. This way, youre left with no regrets.
Ostergren said that if she were in a relationship that was

It was really late at night and we were sitting in the sand on the
beach waiting for our friends to meet us, Maxwell said. We saw
them coming and we knew we only had a small window of time to

heading toward an engagement, she may reconsider, but for now,

kiss. We were both nervous, but we both knew we wanted to kiss

shes not in any rush.

each other. So we did.

Regardless of time or place, a first kiss can fuel the chemistry

between a couple and may even set the stage for the rest of the
relationship.

According to Lewis Smith of The Times Online, the i

Fifteen months later, the couple was married in a church

in Ireland.

I guess some stories do have happy endings, Maxwell

said.

February 2015 19