Monday, November 2, 2015

I'm not normally a crier...

This post is going to be harder to write than I thought. On one hand, once I start things are going to flow very easily. On the other, I'm not going to make a large part of the story public, so bear with me, I hope it makes sense.

So i'm not normally a crier. That's the title I went with. An alternative could've been 'it's not you it's me'. Either way, the content of this post sucks. Last week my boyfriend and I broke up. Well actually he broke up with me. Via text. Yes, via text. Of my friends that I've told, they've all been horrified that it was done via text. A couple dates, text is fine, 5 months, not so fine. For me though, I'm in 2 minds about it


Maybe we should go back a bit. Relationships aren't always easy, long distance relationships even more so. For as long as he was living in the same city as I am, things were going well. But when he moved away, I visited him a couple times. First time everything was great, well at least I thought so. The second time things were a bit weird between us. It was like we were with each other, but we'd lost the ability to communicate. We would go out for lunch or head for a day trip somewhere, but most of the time there was silence between us.

I returned home and decided to give him some space. Rather than me staying in touch with him, I waited for him to contact me. I hated waiting but I felt that we needed it. Eventually I heard from him. After that point, we spoke every now and then, but every time we did I didn't have the balls to ask the important question, as in what's wrong. After consulting my right hand man, I ended up sending him a text that next time we chat, I'd like to talk about us. He thought that was a good idea, and we spoke that night. He agreed things were weird, and could go down 2 routes. The first was we could break, which he said he didn't want to do. The other was for me to visit him in a few weeks and see if we could get things back on track.

At the time I was glad that he chose option B. But after we hung up it all started to sink in. Obviously I liked him, I cared about him, I wanted what was best for him. But how could breaking things off then and there even be an option? Other than a weird trip to visit him, our time together had actually gone quite well. I was happy. I thought he was happy. Why would he want to break up?

As I lay in bed last night, I cried. I didn't bawl my eyes out but I cried. I'm not normally a crier. Ok maybe I'll get a bit emotional but I'd never cried over a guy before. I really really liked him. It was hard not thinking about him, but at least I knew where things were and I'd see him in a couple weeks and we'd try to see where things are going and see if we could get back on track. The next week didn't go so well. He was stressing out about things, and I said if you want me to leave you alone for a bit, I'm happy to do that. If you need me to be patient, consider it done. Which he was glad for, he said he needed to chill out without me, and I was ok with that. I stayed out of contact and said message me when you're ready.

Later that week I was at the gym, and a Taylor Swift song came on. Bloody Taylor Swift. One of the million songs that she wrote about breaking up with someone. It actually made me really sad. I held it together, which surprised me because I had the song on repeat. What can I say, I missed him.

Later that night I went out for dinner with one of my best mates, I pretty much gave him the lowdown. I think the waiter came to us 3 or 4 times asking if we were ready to order, but we were too busy talking. Afterwards we went out for another drink. It was then that I looked at my phone and saw a text from the boyfriend.

The text. The breakup text. It was long, he apologised more than once for doing it via text. It included the usual it's not you, it's me. Isn't that standard for breakups? Well I knew what was going on behind the scenes, so I understood it. I was glad I was with my mate and had a drink in my hand because I needed it. I read it, he read it. I read it again. I don't know what I said, probably not much. Just that when the waiter had come up to us and asked if we were ready and he'd told him that we needed more time as I was going through a breakup, how right he was.

That night I cried again. I'm only human, and I'm allowed to be emotional, right?. He's the first guy I dated in a long time that I really felt a connection with. Not just the sexual chemistry but we just got along really well. What upsets me the most is that it wasn't like things had gone downhill and we tried to work things out and couldn't. We were just living in different cities and he decided to just call it off.

Eventually the next day I wrote him a reply. It was measured and thoughtful which I think was good in hindsight. Had we broken up by phone I probably would've been lost for words. Obviously in person would've been ideal but if he couldn't do it via phone, I doubt he would've done it in person. On the other hand, while I understand his reasoning behind it, and honestly I do (and I don't expect you to because you don't have all the info), he needed to do what he needed to do but I feel like I never really got a chance to say goodbye. I think that's my biggest issue right now. I want closure, but I don't feel i've gotten that through a text.

How long does it take to get over someone?  Obviously I will eventually, but these days, with social media in your face, you see everything. He said he hoped maybe down the line we could reconnect. I assume he meant as friends, which I don't have a problem with. But I'm not going to be the first to make a move. He blocked me on a couple of apps (you know the ones) but didn't unfriend me on Facebook, or unfollow or block me on Instagram, or snapchat. So yeah I still see him being happy, which i'm happy about. But have to stop myself liking things he posts or pictures on instagram. I guess everything will happen with time. And if I do hear from him again I do, and if I don't I don't. Welcome to relationships 101.

1 comment:

Sooo-this-is-me said...

Ouch, breakups, I don't have a lot of experience dating so I don't feel I can offer good advice. I did hear a funny quote once, something like " hell has a special place for people who text a breakup". I feel you might be torturing yourself by following him on facebook etc, maybe try not to do that.