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Produced by the I-Lab at WBUR Boston.

From The New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

Stories of Love, Loss and Redemption

I'm your host, Megna Chacrabardi.

First romances are intense.

They can feel like they might last forever, but mostly they don't.

However, in this week's essay, Mary Claire Lawson writes about a first love that broke all the rules.

It's read by Amanda Sifred.

She starred in Mamma Mia and Mean Girls.

Her new movie is The Art of Racing in the Rain, in theaters August 9th.

One Monday night in May, three years ago, I was waiting outside Ineds.

The best macaroni and cheese joint in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, for yet another mystery date to arrive.

Lately, I had been binging on bad blind dates.

Since moving to New York for college 14 years earlier, I had looked for love in the cracks and crevices of every wrinkle of the five burrows.

From Friendster to Nerve.com to Craigslist's Misconnections.

I had tried everything short of leaving the area.

Oh, wait, I also flew to meet a stranger in Georgia for the weekend.

Now I was at Love's Rock Bottom.

I had spent my 20s racked by adolescent anxiety and felt paralyzed by the length of my singlehood.

It took me years to learn that dating drunk was not the way to connect with a soulmate or myself.

I'd always had to be Mary times 10, 10 beers, 10 shots, 10 bars in one night.

...