As a 25 year-old young man I have experienced two emotionally challenging relationships while although different, (with different people) each shared commonalities that ran the gamut from hopelessly in love to borderline disgust. Being in love is one of the greatest emotions a person can feel. When you’re in love you hope that feeling never goes away; however, once you fall out of love you tell yourself never again. Well, at least that’s true for me.
Seven years ago, I met a met a girl who I thought was the epitome of elegance and taste. After getting to know more about her, we began to bond in ways that were unimaginable to me prior to our meeting. As the weeks turned into months and the months turned into years, I just knew that she was the one with whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life. She was smart, beautiful, caring, affectionate, and goal orientated and these were all qualities that attracted me to her. Now, I don’t know how I missed it…maybe I was blinded by love, but as time went on I began to notice things about her that I didn’t like. She had the propensity to overreact to minor things, her vindictive nature was unbearable, and her willingness to argue all seemed to occur out of thin air.
Considering what I perceived as negatives in the relationship, I remained optimistic and hopeful that things would work between us. However, one day she told me she no longer wanted to be with me. “It’s not you, it’s me. I think we need some time apart to re-evaluate the direction this relationship is heading in.” These were the words she used to end the five years we had been together. I have never had a bag of cinder blocks dropped on me, but after that day I think I may have known what it felt like. It seemed like my world had been turned upside down. I couldn’t tell my right from left and I was an emotional wreck.
Fast forwarding to the present, it has been two years and several meaningless...