I was unable to concentrate on what was happening in the lesson. I was only thinking about Hanne, even though she was sitting in the same room as I was. Or was it thinking? It was more as if I were full to the brim with emotions which did not leave any space for thought. And so it remained for the whole of the winter and spring. I was in love, and it was not one of those trivial crushes, it was one of the grands amours, the ones you may experience only three, or perhaps four, times in a lifetime. This was the first, and since everything about it was new, perhaps the greatest. Everything in me was centred on Hanne. Every morning I awoke and looked forward to going to school, where she would be. If she wasn't there, if she was ill or out of town, all meaning immediately drained out of everything, the rest of the day was just a question of endurance. For what? What was I waiting for while I was waiting? Not hot embraces and deep kisses at any rate, for a relationship in that sense simply did not exist. No, what I was waiting and lived for was the hand that lightly caressed my shoulder, it was the smile that lit up her face whenever she saw me or I said something funny, it was the hug and the embrace when we met as friends after school.

karl ove knausgaard, Karl Ove Knausgaard - A Dea…, loc. 860