I read a letter to Dear Abby from a 13-year old girl who was seeking advice on dealing with her broken heart because her “first kiss” broke up with her. To add to her pain the “first kiss” had a new girlfriend the very next day.

The heart-broken young lady wanted to get back with the ex-boyfriend in spite of how badly he had hurt her. Abby’s advice was to move on, there would be other boys in her future and no doubt pretty soon. That’s definitely good advice, but I’m sure that it’s not advice that the 13-year old will readily accept.

That letter brought back memories of when my “first kiss” dumped me. Even though it was well over 45 years ago I remember it quite clearly. In fact, I remember the breakup a lot more clearly than I remember the “first kiss.”

The romance was relatively short lived as most adolescent romances are, but I was so in love for that short period of time I didn’t for a second imagine that it could end. I just knew that I had found my soul mate. This was the man/boy I would surely marry some day and have his children. We would live in a white house with a picket fence. We would live happily ever after.

Then I got a letter from a girl claiming to be my future husband’s girlfriend. She informed me that I was a very brief fling and meant nothing to him. I should stay away from him because he didn’t even like me, let alone want to be my boyfriend.

My first thought was that this couldn’t be true. The girl just had to be some scum-faced, bad breath, bad hair, fire-breathing, jealous ex. And her mother probably wore combat boots.

I called my intended to confirm that we were in love. Unfortunately, he confirmed that the letter writer was indeed his girlfriend and he had no intention of having anything to do with me.

That was my first lesson in what heartbreak feels like. I was devastated, humiliated and very angry. My entire future had crumbled with the morning mail.

When I read the letter to Dear Abby from the 13-year old girl it brought that old heartbreak right back to me even after all these years.

I got over my “first kiss” when I met his cousin a couple of weeks later and had my “second kiss.”

Now I see these teen angst dramas being played out with my adolescent grandsons and their friends. For the most part it doesn’t seem to have changed that much from my younger days. The budding romances seem to be good for a couple of weeks at best then the he-said-she-said games come into play and it’s all over.

One thing that has changed is that the dramas are now played out on Facebook. They confess their undying love on Facebook and they breakup on Facebook. They share their joy, pain and heartache on Facebook.

Puppy love and teen angst are part of growing up, and the way I see it, they will never forget their first kiss and heartbreak. I never did.