I dated the same person for three years from our senior year of high school through our first two years of college. When things fell through between us, I found myself lost and confused. We were in a long distance relationship, so I knew who I was without him, but I still found myself feeling alone.

It had been years since I navigated summer single, and it been three summers since I had navigated a summer without him. While at first I was never sure I would find my compass this summer, eventually I learned I didn't need to worry about finding a compass when the only map I needed was the map to becoming a better version of myself.

When I first came home from being abroad, I was out every night, going on dates, and trying to figure out what I wanted from this summer and from future relationships. Then I went back to work and that became my focus of the summer.

I found that while working took up a lot of my time, there was still a lot of time I found myself having nothing to do. My best friend and I hang out quite a bit; however, our work schedules don't always work out, so there are still times when I'm left alone trying to figure out the road I'm on.

This summer has already taught me so much. People care about me, I've had friends make plans to come see me, even though they live hours away just because they miss me. My co-workers enjoy my presence, and it has reminded me that even though my feet are miserable, I'm not.

And while I don't know when I'll get over the past three years, I know that I don't need to have someone to be happy. These lessons are making the downsides of this breakup so much easier to handle.

I didn't know what to expect when I realized I would be single this summer, but I found myself searching for ways to better myself. I've fallen further into my passion of writing, I've looked into internships about where I'm going to work next summer (which will hopefully help me get a job later down the road), I've been looking into graduate school, and I've been looking towards the next couple of chapters in my life.

Breakups are sh*tty, no matter how you put it, no matter the reason, no matter what happens, especially during the summer when you're away from your college friends and your routines.

However, breakups also open the door for self-evaluation, figuring out why you act the way you do, and discovering how you can move forward in life. So while at first being single in the summer may seem as if you will never find another form of direction, in the end it just turns out you need to find ways to better yourself.

Positive things are on the way, even if it isn't in the package of another boy.

And, I suppose, if you get really desperate, you can always just use Tinder.