Dear Broken-Hearted Me,

I know you loved him...or at least thought you did. (I know, I know, you’re protesting. Just listen.)

You may not have thought about marriage, forever, or even until next year, but that doesn’t stop the hurt. The fact that you ended it doesn’t ease the pain. In fact, even emo Facebook statuses won’t help either, but you cry and post them anyway.

He was your first kiss, your first date, and your first “love.” And it is hard. Seeing him at school on Monday will be hard. Seeing his friends, the awkwardness, the insistent questions from peers...it’s all hard.

But I can promise you: you will survive.

He was your first boyfriend, but not your last (or even your second or third last). Your life seems over? It’s not. There is so many more productive and fulfilling things with which you can fill your time, like learning grammar and refusing to end a sentence with a preposition no matter how foreign it sounds.

It’s OK to cry, but don’t believe that this is the end. The pain will pass and you will ultimately be happy with your life without him. Don’t allow yourself to be caught up in losing out on living life just because you are sad. There are still many opportunities to make memories, to laugh, and to experience life.

Don’t discount all the other people in your life who bring uncontainable amounts of joy. Leave room for others who will enter your life and make it better. You will undoubtedly meet many more men who are worth spending time with.

And to be honest with you, you will go through this again. And it will hurt, again. You will dump and you will get dumped, but with each ending comes a new beginning. This relationship and all others that will follow will teach you so much more about yourself and about others than anything. Be grateful at the end of the day for all that you have learned.

Not that you need to be told (...), but don’t be petty to ex-boyfriends and don’t treat them with any less respect than they deserve as a fellow human being.

In the end, cherish the good memories that you’ve made and let the past stay in the past. It’s OK to be sad, and you are not worth any less because you’re single now. You will end up stronger when you’ve moved on, with more experience and many lessons to help you to grow and enter into other relationships as an evolved woman.

Hang in there. Things will get better,