1. “About a week after we broke up when I had gone to bed and woken up alone all these days in a row and felt the loneliest I’ve ever felt in my life instead of ‘free’ and single.”

2. “It had been two years and I thought we had gotten boring and were only together out of habit. I was remembering the beginning where I was so excited to see her and she was so excited for me to pay attention to her. It seemed like all of that had faded and there was no spark anymore. It’s been about 6 years since we broke up and I’ve grown a lot. I’ve also seen my friends get into serious relationships and get married and realized that, we had a normal, healthy relationship. We just needed to shake things up, it wasn’t the problem I thought it was.”

3. “When I saw another guy comment on her Instagram photo. I realized she was going to be just fine and start dating someone else soon and I couldn’t stand that thought. She wasn’t mine anymore and that’s what it took to make me realize I still wanted her to be.”

4. “She was too serious and I thought it was suffocating. She was too loving and affectionate, which I think is a joke now. Everyone I have dated since has made me feel lonely and unwanted on some level. I thought I wanted a girl who would joke around with me, we could make fun of each other and it’d be light-hearted. I miss the closeness of feeling like we were on the same team.”

5. “When my best friend explained to me that he doesn’t like some things about his fiance, but he loves who she is more than the individual personality quirks and hobbies that make her up. It was a mind-blowing moment because I’d dumped women I really could have loved because I thought it would be ‘settling’ if she didn’t have a college education or hated that I love football. It sounds stupid now, but I thought to see a future with someone you had to love everything about them.”

6. “A few months after we broke up I still had only had a few shitty Tinder dates, no quality girls in sight. I wanted to break up to see what else was out there, what I learned is that girls like her don’t grow on trees.”

7. “I chose a job over a girl. I was offered my dream promotion but I had to move across the country for at least a year. We tried long distance but that predictably fizzled out. She ended up being the one to break up with me and I knew then that I wouldn’t forgive myself for choosing my job over her. She was the kindest, smartest, most-selfless woman I will ever date.”

8. “A month after our breakup I was walking around my empty apartment (we had lived together) and just filling up with regret. I was unhappy with our sex life and she didn’t seem to care. It may still have been the right decision but in that moment, and many, many other moments I think it was a shallow decision. I’d rather have someone who loves me in my life.”

9. “It was a moment with my new girlfriend, actually. We were walking back from an event at night and the park we cut through was completely deserted. I asked if she’d want to fool around for a little bit while no one was around and she reacted as if I was some huge pervert and not her boyfriend. My ex and I always seemed to be on the same page about being a little sexually adventurous.”