Thank You For Teaching Me That There’s Hope After Heartbreak

I remember the day I fell in love with you. We’d been dating for a month when you invited me to your parents’ camping trip. It was such a good day, and I felt so good being there with you. I felt I belonged and I didn’t want the day to end. We came home late at night and I told you it felt like we were dating for a year when it’d only been a month and you agreed. That’s when I fell in love with you. I felt loved, understood, safe, and complete.

Even today, seven months after the bomb you dropped on me, I wish I could go back to that day—not to our relationship, but just that particular day, to feel close to you again and to feel 100% happy.

When you broke up with me, this memory became painful, and it used to bring tears to my eyes. I couldn’t understand how we went from feeling so close at only one month of dating and then not even speaking to each other one year later.

But then, the rose colored glasses came off and I finally realized how we could never have a happily ever after because we were going in two different directions. I finally understood what my mother used to tell me—that time is never wasted because it becomes a lesson. You became my lesson, dear ex-boyfriend, because you taught me how to love and what it’s like to be loved, and I know I will recognize it when it happens again.

When you broke up with me, thinking about being with someone else made me sick, but now I’m open to the idea of dating someone new and finally feel what it’s like to be someone’s first choice. I’m excited to feel the butterflies again. I’m actually excited to maybe meet someone at the local coffee shop or at work or at the movies. I’m excited to get to know someone and feel appreciated.

I know that in some time, I’ll think about this day at your parents’ camping trip and it’ll feel completely different. My heart will be healed, and it might even belong to someone else. So when I think about that day with you, I’ll see it as a good day that became a distant memory, and then I’ll think about other days that you were not part of.

Thank you for teaching me the greatest lesson: that there’s hope after a heartbreak.