Oh, there's such a lovely, bittersweet feeling to this. All of the unfolding and stretching into love, into new experiences, into adulthood. This is a time in our lives that haunts us somehow, decades later. Not all of it goes well or smoothly, but it can be so vivid, so edged by emotion.

But then there's that "ouch" of an ending, finding out that a time and relationship that mattered so much to us (and still does, even if for just nostalgic reasons) has not left so great a footprint on the heart of that other person. And that divide hurts, even all those years later.

Lovely.