When I was 16, back in 2009, I got my first boyfriend. The whirlwind romance began unexpectedly after a school trip and a few too many shots of cheap vodka. (Thankfully, the relationship outlasted the hangover.)
Until this point, I had watched from the sidelines as my friends’ doomed teen romances played out on MSN Messenger. Here, a sign of true love was adding a significant other’s initials to your screen name. Adding a crush to your MSN name was a Very Big Deal and when it, inevitably, fell apart, it would be dramatically replaced with a broken heart or some sad song lyrics.
