With Valentine’s Day around the corner, love becomes a common theme. Many adults spend their Valentine’s Day celebrating their spouses and family, but has it ever come to mind who their first valentine was? The initial person that showed them what love is? There are so many questions asked about people’s last loves, but never about the people who introduced them to love in the first place. It may seem irrelevant to look back on the past. However, the past helps a person get to where they currently are today. 

“This is all a journey of learning about yourself, what you value and learn from others. You can change people and people can change you,” Mr. Guttuso said, a health teacher and coach at NVD. 

Guttuso is currently married and has a family of his own. However, it took a lot of growth and understanding of himself to get to where he is now. 

“What I’ve learned from my whole experience is ultimately that there are a couple things in relationships that make things work. You will have arguments but you will be able to overcome them when it’s the right person. Also, relationships shouldn’t be about fights, they should be about making each other better,” Guttuso said. 

Guttuso used his past relationships to help him know what he liked and didn’t like in a relationship. He also explained how growth was a big part of what he learned from each relationship. 

“After going through relationships and disappointments, you will end up with who you are supposed with. When you are the best version of yourself, you are ready to care for someone else,” Guttuso explains. Without growth, you can’t be the best version of yourself, and Guttuso shows how this affects a person in a relationship.

“Every relationship, and it doesn’t have to be romantic, but every relationship teaches you something,” Mrs. Glick said, a history teacher at NVD. 

Glick has a husband and kids of her own. 

“Although my first boyfriend that I had is not my husband it was a very positive relationship and it set the tone for what I sought out in my next partners,” said Glick, who also chose to reflect back on her past relationships and use them to flourish in relationships that came later on. 

Glick quoted Alfred Tennyson, an English poet, who said, “It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” By this quote she was expressing how she felt lucky to have had her past loves even if they didn’t work out, because they taught her about herself and initially led her to find her current husband. 

While people don’t like to look back on the past, it can be what helps them get to where they are today. The hardship, misery, and pain that comes from lost relationships hurt at the time, but just like Glick and Guttuso express, people must carry everything they have learned to grow and find the right life for them. 

So, as Valentine’s Day approaches, everyone can reflect back and think about all of the good that has come from past experiences, using those experiences to better themselves. 

“The right person will come when you are least expecting it,” said Guttuso.