When you reach the end of a novel, it’s an emotional moment.

Sometimes you’re happy that the book is finally over and you regret wasting two weeks of your life thumbing through 400 pages looking for some sort of meaning or moral where it just didn't exist. Maybe you’re sad because you grew a sort of attachment to the main character and you weren’t ready for that fictional world to be over. You could be angry that the novel ended on a cliffhanger or in a very predictable way. No matter how the last chapter leads us to the last word, there is an emotion felt as we close the back cover.

In the world today, we are each writing our own novels and sometimes we close the back cover on parts of our lives that we need to move away from. It can happen that these covers get turned too soon, but more often than not, they get turned too late. When reading a bad novel, we find ourselves searching for the reason, begging for the moral, or praying for a murder scene just to spice things up a little bit.

That is why we wait to close the book on our lives. We are waiting for that one moment where things begin to make sense. That one piece that makes it all click. But what are we to do when we don’t find that? When this one aspect of our life simply doesn’t make sense anymore?

It's never easy to move on, no matter what we are leaving behind. Whether it be the end of a sports season, a school year, or the end of a relationship. People don't like change nor do they like trying something new. It's always easy to stick with what we know. However, if there is one thing I have learned in my life, it is that sometimes changes need to happen. Not only for ourselves, but for those around us.

My big change was the end of a relationship.

One that I took too long to end. It pains me to type those words, but I know the truth behind them now. So here is my story on the book that I closed, and what I learned from opening a new one.

Four years ago I met a guy at college. He was great. He was into the same music that I was and liked the same sports. I thought that he and I could be perfect together and I worked for almost two years to make that happen. We went through hurdles and hardships, we didn't talk and then we talked every day. He didn't want a girlfriend but I wanted to show him that I could be the one. I busted my ass and did everything to show him how much I cared.

Finally, I won his heart. He asked me to be his girlfriend and I thought it couldn't have been better. And I was right. I was really happy. I loved everything about him and who he was.

....and then I met someone else.

He was also into the same music as I was and that was our immediate connection. We began working together, I was helping his band with graphic design work, and we spent a lot of time together. This was a guy who was "trying" for me as I had tried for two years. I was still in a relationship and he continued to tell me how he wanted me in his life and wanted to share things with me. But the really shitty part..I wanted those same things too.

We sat on a pier one night and talked about our lives. I told him everything about me, things that no one else has ever known, not even my boyfriend at the time. I was so scared to let anyone into these things because I knew people would think I was crazy. But he didn't. He..believed in me.

I sat here, with two books open in front of me. Halfway through the first one and in the first pages of the second one. I had no clue what to do or where to go. I was lost in life and fighting for answers. Someone was getting hurt in the decision I made, but I had to make it.

Selfishly, I closed the first book.

I ended a relationship I worked so hard to make happen because I had "interest" in someone else. That seems crazy, doesn't it? It was. I made a gutsy call based on a feeling. The only issue was, I waited too long make that call. I ended up hurting him more in waiting than I would have had I been honest from the start.

So, if you've read this far, first I thank you, and now, I'll finally reach the point.

I was in a relationship with a person who I loved. But I felt a connection I'd never felt before with someone new. Someone who wanted to be with me despite all of the factors in our way. Someone who believed in me and listened to me. Someone who showed me how much he cared versus telling me. I put him on the side so I could figure out how to break up with my boyfriend. I had never done that before. I didn't want to lose what I was comfortable with and what I knew.
But I had to think for me, for once in my life. And I couldn't be happier. I hate to say it, but it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

My message to you: it's hard to think for yourself sometimes, especially when that means that someone gets hurt. But if you feel it in your heart..take a shot. Close a book. Don't wait for it to spark your interest. Don't put off hurting someone because if you're thinking about it now, it is bound to happen. It will happen.

We write our own stories and create our own paths. All I ask of you is to think about where you want your story to end. Question how you feel and if, for a moment, you aren't happy, fix it. We only have so much time and I want your story to be full of happiness and love. I went through the worst to get on track, and despite how it all happened, I'm glad I did it.