In high school a class of mine went on a field trip to a country in South America. The girl I was head over heals for went on the trip too and up till that point we had been flirting with each other the entire school year. Even though I was only 16 at the time, I had legitimate feelings for this girl that extended beyond wanting to have sex with her. She was my first love.
We went to many different places during that trip, however one stop we made is particularly memorable. We stopped at some place that was like a town in the middle of a rainforest. The small town had a lot of little shops, nice friendly people everywhere, and we were surrounded by a beautiful environment in the rainforest. I can't describe it but I just loved the vibe of the place, it had such a relaxed/innocent/good wholesome vibe to it. Also the rainforest, the animals, it was so beautiful to me.
We stayed at this hotel/resort that was essentially outside (each "room" wasn't a room but sort of a mini house, the hotel was just a network of these mini houses close to each other in a rainforest) and we each got our own rooms paired with a partner. I don't remember exactly but I do remember we weren't at this place long (i wish we had since it was my favorite place in the whole trip) only 1 or 2 nights.
We weren't supposed to leave our rooms at night but one of the nights I did (the kid I roomed with was cool and never told on me for leaving) to go see if the girl I liked would hang out with me outside. I went to her room and she was reluctant cause she didn't want to get into trouble so at first we decided to hang out on the hammock together alone that was next to her room outside. We laid on the hammock together outside, in a rainforest, the night sky was clear and the beauty of the universe was beholden for us to see.
This is where we shared our first kiss together followed by a long make out session. After this we decided to live in the moment and we went to the town together in the middle of the night. We held hands the entire time, laughed a lot, had a ton of fun running around the town and finding places where we could be alone to make out again. This lasted for almost the whole night but eventually we snuck back into our separate rooms early in the morning.
I bought her a bracelet at one of the shops, and 2 years after this trip when I saw her at a party she was still wearing it (too bad I was too dense at the time to realize that she probably still had feelings for me) so I know that night was special to her as well.
Now that I look back at this story as an adult I realize how crazy and dangerous this was. Two teens running around in a town in the middle of the night surrounded by forest in a poor foreign country without adult supervision. But the pure spontaneity of everything that happened that night combined with the beautiful scenery, first time I kissed her, the excitement of being somewhere foreign and adventuring with someone you have feelings for, it was such a wonderful and heartfelt experience that I'm glad I did this very stupid thing as a teen.
