firsts

Most of life__ big steps require a certain muddling through, a trusting that no one really knows the magical formula for the big firsts in life [Cram, Cusi, "__ne Life to Live_ and 14 Beautiful Boys to Kiss," Cafe, January 14, 2015].

Precedence exists in humanity as it does with law.

It's true what they say, you know. First fuck. First love. First kill. You never forget your first.

Imagine your body becoming that of a stranger. Imagine the sensation of it being not yours, as you discover what it feels like to do this, or to have this happen to you, for the very first time. Imagine it happening with sickening slowness, or with shocking speed, that discovery. And then imagine knowing it has come too late.

September had never been betrayed before. She did not even know what to call the feeling in her chest, so bitter and sour. Poor child. There is always a first time, and it is never the last time.

Of the many 'firsts' with which I have been involved at the Texas Heart Institute __ncluding the first successful human heart transplant in the United States and the first total artificial heart transplant in the world__he achievement that may have the greatest impact on health care did not occur in the operating room or in the research laboratory. It happened on a piece of paper... when we created the first-ever packaged pricing plan for cardiovascular surgical procedures.

That first kiss, it still has a way of making us nervous as teenagers, no matter how old we get.

She remembered the intensity of her desire to undress him, to be naked with him, the way she felt like she could say whatever she wanted and be fully understood and do whatever she wanted and be totally accepted. She remembered how easy it had all been, how open and bright, like being in a whitewashed room with all the windows wide open.