Stop thinking about the past and focus on the future. That’s where you’re heading anyway so why would you look back. “Don’t look back unless you’re willing to go that way,” and I know you don’t want to go that way. Too many people look back on their life and wonder what if? Stop looking back, let it go, and start living. I read these articles and hear people talk about an ex that they never wished they dated or an ex best friend that they had. A piece of advice…let it go. How long ago was it? 2 years, 5 years? That’s a long time. You need to move on from these things that are holding you back and keep you from moving forward and enjoying your life. I know someone that she and a good friend in high school had a few minor problems nothing like my one friend and I had gone through (and still very close to this day) but she now sees her around campus and avoids her. Why? Is it really necessary to avoid saying hi? Just hi. Two little letters that will take .2 seconds to say. Be the bigger person and don’t avoid anyone. If you do you’re not living your life to the fullest. Don’t worry if they don’t say hi back at least you know you did the right thing and can move on from that. So I found on this website, http://personalexcellence.co/blog/how-to-move-on/, 12 signs that you have not moved on:

1. When you think of the person more often than not.
2. When you think about him/her even though you don’t want to.
3. When you keep mentally reliving past memories with him/her, usually the happy/sweet ones.
4. When he/she comes to mind the first instant when you are down and out.
5. When you still have questions and resignations about the past. You wonder what could have been or why didn’t it turn out a certain way.
6. When you assign blame for the way things turned out, whether it’s to him/her, yourself or the circumstance.
7. When thought/sight of him/her trigger certain emotional reactions, such as aversion, anxiety, frustration, resignation.
8. When you keep trying to improve yourself because you feel you were not good enough (for him/her).
9. When you have a desire to spite him/her, as a way of making him/her regret for whatever happened.
10. When you often bring up the person in your conversations, even when there is no relation.
11. When you have a desire or urge to contact him/her even though you previously told yourself you didn’t want to.
12. When you find yourself living out the same looping patterns. A very common example would be on-again, off-again relationships with that person. Or a lingering state of relationship that doesn’t get anywhere. Even if you are with other people, if the relationships act out in the same pattern as the past, it reflects you have not moved on. There’s a part of you entrenched in the past which is making the same situation reenact itself, just with a different person.

Also on the same website there are 10 steps to help you move on:

1. Clear your baggage. Acknowledge, accept and let go of your feelings
2. Recognize he/she is not the one for you
3. Share with your close friends
4. Reduce contact
5. Seek closure
6. Forgive
7. Do things you love
8. Meet new people
9. Know there is nothing wrong with you or him/her
10. Recognize someone is out there for you