I love this song. It takes me right back to being in love for the first time. Whenever I hear it, I stop. I listen to every word. I feel every emotion. I still feel being in love for the first time.

My mind also wanders to him. The why of the breakup. Why did we not stay together? What is he doing now? How would our lives be different?

If you Google the date of Weekend in New England this makes a lot of years of such why questions.

Then my mind wanders to John. He doesn’t make me feel like this song. I don’t even think he made my heart flutter like this first love did. But with John is reality. The real thing. The real thing for 20+ years.

He also knows the real me. He loves the real me. Not the me of 1980. The me of 1998 and the me that is aging and aching in front of him.

That is romantic. That is love. That is full of emotions. And that makes me swoon.

I can’t even place John into the emotions of this song. He doesn’t fit. He’s real. My first love was real too. But the real didn’t last past 1981.

With John it’s different emotions than the ones that this song still makes me feel. And that is okay. I’ll choose this life every time.