They chose college over love 44 years ago. 44 years later, he found her in the unlikeliest place—LinkedIn

Love is a tricky business — sometimes you can have all the chemistry in the world with the person you dream of being with, but poor timing may throw it all for a toss. While life moves ahead, the patches of that love never fade from your soul. If you are lucky enough, then it will knock on your door again, years later, and bring your journey full circle. Something similar happened with Terry Farley and Steve Downey — high school sweethearts who were forced to part ways, only to reunite 44 years later, as reported by TODAY.

It's funny how love weaves its own story sometimes — just when you think you'll never see your first love again, life surprises you. Terry Farley and Steve Downey met each other in 1971 at 14 and 16 years of age, respectively, at a Catholic youth organization conference. They found each other quite attractive, beginning their love story almost instantaneously. "We were very innocent. When we held hands, it felt very dicey," said Terry in a video posted by the outlet. Their innocent love blossomed until they had to go off to separate colleges, which threw a wrench in their relationship. By 1980, they had lost all contact with each other and gone on to marry other people.

However, life had different plans in store. While Steve’s wife passed away due to cancer in 2009, Terry was going through a difficult divorce. "After my wife, Kathy, passed away, I didn't really have any interest in dating,'' Downey said. "I thought that part of my life was over. And after a while, I became okay with that." Terry had also been on a blind date after her divorce, which turned out to be a “disaster.” After losing all hope in love, she came across Steve on LinkedIn, but hesitated to reach out, possibly feeling embarrassed about how much time had passed since their last interaction. When Steve stumbled across her LinkedIn profile a month later, he didn't wait. “Hey, Terry," he wrote, "this is the Steve Downey you used to know” — and thus began the sequel to their romance. After a year of long-distance, Steve moved to Tallahassee to be with the love of his life. They tied the knot in 2015 and have been giddy with joy ever since.

There is no doubt that for most of us, our first love has been special — butterflies in the stomach, sweaty palms, and the innocent hand-holding. It can not only impact our minds for an eternity but also alter our perception of romance for years to come. The late American psychology professor, Dr. Nancy Kalish, studied rekindled romances only to realize that most of these stories fit into the same category — the people involved were below 24, grew up together, and parted ways due to an external conflict like family disapproval. About 72 percent of them, when reunited in the future, got married. Additionally, these relationships showed about a 70 percent success rate when they were single, widowed, or divorced.

After watching the wholesome video, viewers expressed their hearty emotions. @victoriabenn shared a very similar story, “I reunited with my first love 38 years later! We have been married 8 years now,” and @Lalaimanfit shared hers, “I found mine 13 years later and I’m so happy!” @yueli2146 joked, “Dude slid in her LinkedIn DMs, oh my god, what a legend,” while @MYNAMEizCLARENCE expressed, “The true definition of: ‘If you love something let it go, it will come back to you.’” Finally, @ritahall2378 wrote, “Once you love someone, you always love them — it was meant to be for them to be together — still dream of my true love.”