Relationships are fun, romantic, beautiful, wild, perfect… that is until they’re not. My ex and I dated for almost two and a half years when we broke up and it was hard. I practically cried for a month straight and every single thing reminded me of him. He has been going to the college I attend now longer than I have, so it was hard not seeing our memories together at every turn on campus.
(one winter break later and…)
Slowly, I started to heal to the point where I had to really try hard to think of the memories. It was like searching through Netflix: his memories were no longer in the “Recently Watched” category, but instead I would have had to specifically type them into a search bar in my brain to pull them up.
Once the thoughts of him weren’t occupying the majority of my brain, I realized that I could do almost anything. As much of a romantic as I am, it’s so wild and fun being single! I threw myself into every activity I was doing, so much so, that I found many of my newest passions and acquired jobs and leadership opportunities. I also rediscovered the male species… I guess I had been blinded by the veil of my relationship that I never realized all the good looking guys at parties, behind me in math class, skateboarding by on campus. It was like seeing the world again for the first time.
While finding my passions and getting to flirt freely was super fun, being single made me realize most that I hadn’t been as attentive to my family and friends as I could have been. Now, I try to call my mom every day, go out of my way to grab lunch with my friends, and create genuine conversations with all of the people that are in my life.
The relationship itself has taught me what I want out of life and out of future relationships, and being single again has taught me to remember and look after the great things that are happening around me now.
If you’re going through a breakup, just remember it happened for a reason, and that you will probably come out better than you went in.