When you date someone you either end up marrying them or you break up. That is the brutal reality of being in a relationship. When you do break up and come to the realization that you now have to forget about them, your life kind of starts to get confusing. You have to figure out how to live your life without that person. This usually takes some time, but once you are finally over them... well... it's kind of like that feeling when you submerge yourself into a steaming hot bath tub after a really long day.

You finally felt feelings for someone else.

Whether you ended up dating this person or just spending one night with them, you did it. You felt for someone on a deeper level than friendship. This is a big deal for someone who recently fell out of love. Bonus points if you finally fall in like with someone new. Super extra bonus points if you fall in love with someone new. No matter what feeling you felt, you left the other person behind and didn't look back.

You can't really remember what their face looks like.

The face that you most likely went to sleep looking at and woke up to every morning doesn't seem so familiar anymore. You know you would recognize them anywhere just like that, but you can't really formulate in your mind exactly what they look like. Their face becomes kind of insignificant. It's really hard to explain, but you know exactly what I'm talking about. When you were dating, this feeling would've killed you, but now it gives you a sense of peace.

You can see pictures of yourself with him and not lose your shit.

For the first couple of weeks, months or years after the breakup, you couldn't even so much as see a photo of him without crying your eyes out. The look of your faces next to each other made your stomach hurt. Not out of sickness, but out of sadness. You felt like these photos captured so many moments that you would never get back. Eventually, you noticed that you were happy in these photos, independent of them being there and you were at peace.

You accidentally talk about your memories with him as memories with a friend, not memories with an ex-boyfriend.

You don't even realize what you're doing when you're doing it. You talk about things that you did with him, movies that you saw with him or things that you learned with him without even realizing that you are talking about your ex. This is because, even though you were with this particular person, you were making memories nonetheless. It's particularly hard to put a filter on because a lot of these memories are super positive. These stories particularly make your significant other mad because they feel threatened. But sometimes they need to be reminded that this person was a friend for a very long time.

Their name stops making sense.

That statement itself doesn't make much sense, but think about this. When you were dating this person you would think or say their name and you would get this warm feeling. You would do that thing where you would put their last name behind your name just to see how it sounds. When you were dating it sounded perfect, but now the sound makes you cringe. Their name was so familiar. You said it every day, and now it's gone. You couldn't be happier.

You became independent.

After a breakup is the prime time to find yourself. You learn how to sleep alone, how to make plans with your friends on the weekends, how to binge-watch TV shows on your own time and how to function without someone attached to your hip. At this point, you feel like you can rule the world. This is an amazing feeling. It is even more amazing when you find neutrality in all of this and find someone new. You are a newer, stronger person. The person that you are with next knows the newer, stronger you not the sad, pitiful you.

You stop caring about them and start caring about THEM.

What they're doing, what party they're at, what girl they're with, etc. doesn't matter to you so much anymore. You are more concerned about their well-being. You hope they are doing well in school, you hope their family is doing okay and you hope that they finished that two-year-long project that they could never perfect. You stop caring about the stupid little details and you start caring about the big-picture things.

You moved on.

The very last step, for most, when it comes to getting over your last one is finding a new one. You know from your last relationship exactly what you don't want. You find someone who makes you happier, who loves you better and who understands you on a deeper level. If you were meant to marry them, you would've, but you weren't. You did what any other human would do and you moved on.

Not all of these statements hold true for everyone and everyone has their own unique way of getting over someone. I didn't mention the burning of their photos or the destruction of their belongings because I felt like those were just minor details. Getting over someone is more about finding yourself and less about losing them.