They were the people who once held our hands, our secrets and our aspirations. They shaped us to be the strong people we are today, and we can attribute much of our success to the bumps they have helped us hurdle over and the lessons they have taught us. Change is inevitable in life, especially as we move through our college years. So here is a public “thank you” to all of those who have influenced us in the past to become who we are in the present, whether or not they are still a part of our lives.
Thank You to My Ex-Best FriendYou were the person who would somehow show up in the exact same outfit as me, even though we never told each other that today was a “blue jeans and black cardigan” kind of day. If we were only given one slice of pizza, no words had to be spoken for us to know that I’d be having the cheese and you’d be having the crust. You taught me how to be selfless, and that sharing an experience – or a piece of food – with someone else was much more rewarding than keeping it to myself.You taught me that no boy is worth crying over because mascara is expensive, and that the only tears really worth shedding are ones over laughter (or Harry Potter movies. RIP Dobby). Thank you for the excessive hours spent trying to take a nice picture of me because my Instagram was looking empty, and thanks for being the first person to “like” it. Thank you for never judging me through my awkward side-bangs phase, because let’s face it, you were just as awkward.You might live close or you might live far, but you will always live with me in the form of good memories and even greater stories. Although you may not have turned out to be my best friend forever, your impact on me will last forever.
Thank You to My Ex-BoyfriendYou let me use your Netflix account even though it made your queue full of romantic comedies, and you never made me eat Chipotle alone. You taught me that what I wanted at 16 years old was very different than what I wanted at 18. You may not have been the love of my life, but you taught me that one day I will find the person who is.The flowers and chocolates you gave me were nice, but the courage you gave me to reaffirm my own values has lasted much longer than the flowers that died and the chocolates that were eaten. You were great when things were good, but it is when things were bad that you taught me what I don’t want to go through in the future. You taught me that I should never compromise my ambitions to suit a guy’s needs A boy tolerates a powerful woman, while a man encourages them.You showed me that I don’t need to depend on a guy for help because independently dealing with problems has supplied me with the strength to accept failure and the motivation to pursue success. Thank you for the cute cards on our month-iversaries and for the “goodnight” texts that we considered romantic. Most importantly, thank you for being a nice frog to spend my time with while going along the path to finding my prince.
Thank You to My Ex-TeacherOf course you were my teacher, so it was your job to teach me. But it is not necessarily the material I was tested that stays with me to this day. You taught me responsibility for my own actions, and that if I failed to put in the work to succeed, I have no one but myself to blame for my own failure. This lesson is so valuable not just for college courses, but for life in general. Not every task comes easy, whether it’s acing a test or building a relationship, and I learned that if I am not giving something my all, I cannot expect it to yield the best results.You instilled in me the value of retaining knowledge and not just memorizing. This is extremely relevant now, when our grades not only depend on the material we read, but the notes we take. Outside of classes, you taught me how important it is to listen to others and always be alert and present, even with our many distractions. (Thanks for yelling at me to put my phone away in class.)You taught me that sometimes we cannot change others, and it is not our fault. It is not a good teacher’s fault that a student fails, much like it is not a good friend’s fault that another friend makes poor decisions. You taught me that helping others achieve is just as rewarding as achieving in my own life. Thank you for educating me in concepts past what we can find in a textbook.
Thank You to My Ex-RoommateYou are the person who put up with the piles of clothes that accumulated on random chairs, the late nights that I strolled in and accidentally dropped heavy items while you were sleeping, and the box of Cheez-Its you bought that I somehow ended up finishing. You kept my privacy, and you became either my best friend or my frenemy.If I was lucky enough to have you become my best friend, I seriously regret the “ex” part and wish you were still my current roommate so we could spend many more nights together eating burnt popcorn and wrapping ourselves in blanket burritos together. But if you became the frenemy, then I learned a lot about how to live with a person who was very different than myself and who I did not always agree with.Living with you made me realize how important it is to spend time alone sometimes, and that even people who like each other can get sick of each other occasionally. Thank you for not stealing my jewelry and for never allowing homeless people to sleep in my bed when I was away because yes, I have heard these stories from real people.
Without these exes in my life, I would not be the person I am today, and most importantly, I would not have the present people and strengths in my life if it weren’t for all of you. For that matter, exes should not be held in a derogatory light. Instead, they should be celebrated for having influenced our lives, whether good or bad, to create the pleasant present we are in now.
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